Topic “Other Articles” — Exporter Magazine

West Auckland engineering firm A-Ward beat out some impressive competition last week to win the Supreme Award at the Westpac Auckland Business Awards/WEST. Their export sales record is truly inspirational. 

Showcase co-founder Millie Jocelyn is typical of the new breed of emerging tech exporter – young, smart, entrepreneurial and tuned in to where technology’s taking the world. 

For Christchurch company Integrated Hydraulics the export journey has been a long and challenging one from its beginnings in a tiny blueberry packing shed. Today the focus is on product and market expansion. 

New Zealand’s SME export sector has enjoyed a period of major growth over the past year, with many planning to invest in increasing staff and wages in expectation of another solid year .  

Video games software is a hi-tech weightless export industry that creates New Zealand-owned IP and competes on a global scale – and revenues have doubled in the past year.

They’re possibly controversial, pull no punches, but they’re based on the cold, hard reality of experience. Paul O’Brien’s Chinese Ten Commandments can save frustration, time and money for exporters who obey them.

In the 1970s when trade ties with the UK were reduced after the motherland joined the European Economic Community, business leaders were encouraged by the government to forge new export markets. Stewart Matthews was one of those pioneers. This is his story of those early trade missions to the Middle East.