Feb 05, 2018  -  West Coast start up Reefton Distilling Co. is gearing up to produce premium quality spirits from the middle of the year after a successful capital raise through their crowdfunding equity offer.  Co-founders and Directors Patsy Bass and Sean Whitaker said that they were "absolutely thrilled", by the optimism and support from their investors, many of whom are a part of the local West Coast Community. They went on to announce that as at 10pm (NZST) on Sunday 4th February, the Equity Offer had raised over $1,125,000.

Dec 15, 2017  -  More young people in 2018 in Canterbury will have the chance to set up and run their own ventures, learning first-hand from local business mentors and developing critical skills for future employment and study.  Ara Institute of Canterbury is the new regional partner for The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) and is enthusiastic about becoming more actively involved after previously hosting YES events.

“We are thrilled to work with Ara Institute of Canterbury to continue supporting local entrepreneurs. We know Ara will be able to offer value and support to the schools we work with to further impact youth entrepreneurship in the region,” Head of YES Dr Colin Kennedy said. The Lion Foundation YES is an experiential year-long programme where senior secondary students set up and run a business while still in school with real products and services, real profit and loss.

Ara will utilise its network of relationships with Canterbury schools and local businesses to support and grow the scheme. Some 500 students will be engaged in the scheme in 2018, participating in the journey of coming up with an innovative idea and developing it further into a successful business.

Head of the Department of Business at Ara, Michaela Blacklock, said that the two organisations share similar values and Ara was delighted to become a YES regional partner.

“Working with the students, teachers, mentors and sponsors involved in Young Enterprise in 2018, we can support and challenge our young people to develop their potential. They could go on to become Canterbury’s future entrepreneurs and business leaders – and that’s exciting,” she said. “The practical nature of YES aligns directly with the Ara focus on applied learning, where students learn by doing from day one. We apply this principle to all of our business programmes ensuring that our students get the best possible learning experience by applying theory as they learn it.” Blacklock says Canterbury is a leader in understanding the social, economic and environmental impacts of business activity.

“Christchurch hosted the Social Enterprise World Forum this year, and we have many successful social enterprises here to inspire YES participants. You only have to look at Anteater and My Green Dinner Table, both created by former Ara students, to see what is possible.”“Young people are playing a pivotal role in transforming and growing the local economy, and in creating a better world.”

CORE Education has provided the umbrella for YES in Canterbury in recent years with the number of students taking part regionally growing year on year. Ara looks forward to building on this from 2018 and is grateful for the work CORE have put into the programme to this point.

| An ARA release  ||  December 15, 2017   |||

Dec 11, 2017 - ​Brand launch and Chamber of Commerce workshop help progress Ruapehu business ambitions.  Two milestone events in support of Ruapehu business development and Council’s goal of increasing jobs, incomes and opportunities took place at the Chateau Tongariro Hotel last week.

The first was the official launch of Visit Ruapehu's new regional brand – ‘Our Greater Outdoors’ that was followed by a special workshop attended to discuss the possibility of establishing a Ruapehu Chamber of Commerce.

Visit Ruapehu Trade and Marketing Manager Jo Kennedy said that there was a lot of excitement around the new regional branding which was jointly funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and developed with input from leading tourism experts, local operators and community partners such as iwi.

“We now have strong, authentic brand marketing and communications material that will help enable tourism and visitor services to maximise its contribution to sustainable regional growth,” she said.

“Although the new brand was developed by the Ruapehu tourism and visitor sector it is available to other businesses wanting to give a regional context to their operations, products or service.”

“We now have the opportunity to align all Ruapehu, regional partners and other stakeholders to speak with one united vision and voice to promote our region.”

Around 25 people representing Ruapehu business including; farming, iwi, tourism, hospitality, consulting, utility companies, government agencies, manufacturing and small business took part take part in a workshop to discuss how a local Ruapehu Chamber could help support and inspire local business vitality and success.

Special guests at the workshop were Michael Barnett, Chief Executive of the Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Amanda Linsley, Chief Executive of the Manawatu Chamber of Commerce.

The workshop discussion highlighted that there was a strong consensus that a collective business voice could add value and help influence a wide range of Ruapehu issues that are challenging the business sector.

Mr. Barnett stressed the importance of Ruapehu businesses getting the “why” (we are doing it) right before focusing on the “what” (a Chamber could do).

“A key question is whether a local Chamber of Commerce is needed or whether another structure such as a Business Forum or some other arrangement would best suit Ruapehu’s needs,” he said.

Workshop participants agreed that they would consider the questions raised during the workshop over the summer before reconvening early in the New Year.

| A Ruapehu District council release  ||  December 11, 2017   |||

After questions were raised about six buildings in Masterton by one of our members, IPENZ alerted the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). This resulted in initial seismic assessments of these six buildings, followed by more detailed assessments, which raised questions about the engineering of the buildings.. There have also been assessments of a number of other buildings.

IPENZ is commencing an own-motion inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the engineering design and construction of these six buildings in Masterton. IPENZ cares deeply about public trust and confidence in our engineers and we need to get to the bottom of what has happened here. The best way to do this is to investigate what has happened.

Own-motion inquiries are best reserved for matters with broader systemic implications. They are different from own-motion complaints. They allow us to look into the circumstances before determining whether any action needs to be taken in relation to individual engineers.

Our responsibility is to investigate matters as they relate to individual engineers. But engineers are part of a system. Everything happens within a context and it is important that we understand context at an individual, systemic and sector-wide level. This will form part of the Inquiry.

The Inquiry will look at what happened, why and what we can learn. This could include the adequacy of oversight, supervision, and quality assurance processes; and broader issues involved in the engineering review of those designs and construction monitoring.

The first step of the process is to gather facts and identify issues to determine whether any individual engineers need to be investigated further. It’s also to consider whether there are any systemic or contextual factors that may require a response from IPENZ.

The Inquiry will take a neutral, deliberate approach and is likely to take some months.

| An IPENZ release | Dec 01,206 |