Awards & Prizes

2014 NZIFST Food Industry EXCELLENCE Award Winners & Finalists

Waste Management (NZ) Award for Excellence in Leadership

Winner - Keith Neylon (Blue River Dairy LP)
“Keith could not pass up the challenge of rescuing the then struggling Blue River Dairy Co-op, developing them into the leading sheep milk specialists in New Zealand. Keith is a truly inspiring leader; he supports, encourages and believes in his team to ensure it performs to the best of its capabilities.” 

Finalist - Karen Staples (Pure Delish Ltd)
“Karen’s dynamism has led to the growth of a thriving business delivering hand-crafted bakery goods to the market. Her leadership abilities and passion have helped people grow, and in return, her staff shows a real sense of care and commitment to the business and to Karen.”

Eurofins NZ Laboratory Services Ltd Award for Excellence in Service or Supply 

Winner - Peter Bailey (Food Tech Solutions)
“Peter combines a wealth of technical experience and expertise with a genuine desire to help people above and beyond the call of duty; and he takes good service as a personal performance requisite, driven by a passion for people.”

Finalist - Gerald Hope & Mark Ward (Marlborough Research Centre/Riddet Institute)
“Gerald and Mark are from totally different organisations yet they set a good example for practical yet novel approaches to collaborative innovation in this industry. Their strenuous efforts model the can-do attitude which will set New Zealand apart from other food exporting countries.”

Finalist - Vladan Vukovic & Neil Cullen (Wimpex Ltd)
“Vladan and Neil showed an impressive “can-do” approach to an urgent opportunity in the challenging international food contract manufacturing environment. They have shown excellence in dealing with equipment suppliers, the contract customer and all staff, to successfully fulfil the customer’s product demands.”

ECOLAB Award for Excellence in Eco-Efficiency

Winner - Environment Management System team, Inghams Enterprises (NZ) Pty Ltd
“The company culture, management structure, & meaningful goals set across all facets of their operation, ensures resource utilization improvements are an integral part of the business.  Excellence in each of the individuals’ own performance has resulted in clearly measureable improvements in overall natural resource utilization.”

NZ Food Innovation Network Award for Excellence in Innovation

Winner - R & D Team, Blue River Dairy LP
“Blue River Dairy LP, now a diverse FMCG sheep-milk dairy business, has used innovation throughout its farm-to-market business model to bring the company from the brink of demise to a niche leader in the supermarket dairy case, a challenging consumer market sector”

Finalist - Neil Cullen (New Zealand Dairy Brands Ltd)
“This nomination is for the team involved in developing “GO MILK”, a healthy choice children’s beverage solution launched through the New Zealand food retail channels in March 2014. The product shows care in all stages of the process from concept, to creation through delivery and safety.”

Finalist - Jono Au-Young (Springbrook Foods)
“Jono brought technical knowledge and a structured product development process to Springbrook Foods and his can-do, customer focussed attitude, and an inclusive collaborative process to product innovation has transformed the company’s ability to deliver exciting new products to their customers.”

2013 NZIFST Food Industry EXCELLENCE Award Winners & Finalists

2013 Jasol Award for Excellence in Leadership

WINNER: Juli Mercer, Hansells Food Group for being a guiding light during extensive changes to the business and never expecting anything of her team she wouldn’t be prepared to do herself.

Leadership Team, Greenlea Premier Meats Limited for their active and sustained leadership to achieve their vision of being the best and most progressive meat company in NZ.

2013 NZIFST Award for Excellence in Service & Supply 

WINNER: NZIFST/CREST Student Product Development Challenge for their collaborative service involving teachers, students, the tertiary sector, Futureintech, the food industry, NZIFST and the RSNZ

Bob Olayo, FF Instrumentation Ltd for consistently going out of his way to ensure a very high level of service when helping to solve client’s problems and provide training.

David Anstice, Auckland Tourism Events Economic Development (ATEED) for his tireless promotional and developmental work with the food and beverage processing companies and academic institutions in the Auckland region.

2013 Ecolab Award for Excellence in Eco Efficiency

WINNER: Engineering Team, Fonterra Brands NZ: Te Roto Specialty Cheese Plant for their vision and hard work with a new plant to achieve an energy capture that now exceeds specification.  

Dominion Salt & Aurecon NZ Ltd for their novel upgrade of the Dominion Salt Vacuum Plant that has increased production capacity of pharmaceutical and food grade salt by significantly more that the planned 50%.

2013 MPI Award for Excellence in Innovation

WINNER: Megan Howard, JH Whittaker & Sons Ltd for their pink-coloured chocolate to raise money for breast cancer awareness. 

Kerry Johnson, Soulo Company for innovation and perseverance leading to a new process of filling wine directly into plastic.

Chloe Pizzato, Fonterra Brands for making functional yoghurt relevant to their consumers and re-launching Symbio with new branding, positioning, packaging, formulation and communication.  



2012 NZIFST Food Industry EXCELLENCE Award Winners

Read the citations Excellence Awards Citations 2012 

Excellence in INNOVATION
 

2012 Runner-up Eric Arndt, Aria Farms; President Cathy McArdle; Katy Bluett (on behalf of winner Fiona Hyland, Tip Top Ice Bar)


Excellence in ECO-EFFICIENCY
 (Sponsored by Ecolab)


 Greg McGaghey & Alastair Campbell (Winner), Bluebird Foods; Cameron Gilliland, Ecolab; Runner-up James Good, Fonterra Te Roto 


Excellence in LEADERSHIP
(Sponsored by Jasol New Zealand)


Winner – Pierre van Heerden, Sanitarium (left), Runner-up David Tanner, Zespri with Graham Lee from Jasol (Absent – Runner-up Sharon Angus Silver Fern Farms) 


Excellence in SERVICE or SUPPLY


David Calder, Arrow International (runner-up); Winner Sue Reynolds, Chch EHO Team; President Cathy McArdle; Carolyn Lister, Plant and Food Research(Runner-up)

 
2011 - Ecolab Award for Excellence in Eco-Efficiency

WINNER: Fonterra Canpac (for reduced waste to landfill & extensive recycling initiatives)
RUNNER-UP: Orica Chemnet (for "Resource Hunt" and "Green Office" sustainability programmes)

2011 - Orica Chemnet Award for Excellence in Innovation

WINNER: Riddet Institute (For ProBioLife)
RUNNER-UP: Mana Shuzou NZ Ltd (for Shochu)
RUNNER-UP: Ovine Automation Limited (for Auto Brisket Cutting & Evisceration)


2010 - Ecolab Award for Excellence in Eco-Efficiency

WINNER: Coca-Cola Amital (for 99% recycling goal)
RUNNER-UP: Silver Fern Farms (for change to 100% recyclable cardboard dunnage)

2010 - NZIFST Award for Excellence in Service & Supply

WINNER: mbar Limited (for service of vacuum pumps and blowers)
RUNNER-UP: The Chip Group (for improving the nutrient profile of food service chips)

2010 - NZIFST Award for Excellence in Innovation

WINNER: Mars Petcare NZ (for Whiskas Tasty Textures)
RUNNER-UP: Kiwi Ice Cream Company Limited (for low fat, low carbohydrate icecream)

2010 - Orica Chemnet Award for Excellence in Leadership

WINNER: Glenda Gourley (Chairperson, The Chip Group)
RUNNER-UP: Don Tweeddale (Apiarist - for Manuka Honey initiatives)

2009 Dairy Awards winners




2008 Dairy Awards winners