Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
HomeGeneralFood & drink export sales soar in Brexit boost
Feb 12, 2018 -UK (STL.News) Overseas sales of UK food and drink continued to soar last year, with record exports of over £22 billion demonstrating a clear desire for British taste, quality and high standards around the world. UK food and drink businesses are now selling their products to 217 markets – with sales of milk & cream increasing by 61%, salmon by 23% and pork by 14%.
Feb 10, 2018 - Yesterday we signed the lease for the new OCHO chocolate factory on Roberts Street in Dunedin. It has taken some time now to find the perfect place, close to the waterfront and with the capacity for both a production space and cafe. There is so much to do in order to get the site up and running, and we are expecting things to be underway for our new site in the second half of this year.
Our first priority is production. By the end of this year, we want to be making two or three times the amount of chocolate we do now. This will mean commissioning a new production line which is on order. After we have that up and running smoothly, we will start taking tours through the factory. We know you all want to come and visit, but you will have to wait a little longer!
We have plans to put in a cafe, a retail space, and create a world-class factory tour down the line. In the meantime, our Vogel St cafe will remain our front of house with a test kitchen so you can still drink hot chocolate and smell the delightful aroma of cacao beans roasting out the back.
Our PledgeMe campaign is almost wrapped up, and we are overwhelmed with the support from more than 3,000 shareholders. Jim O'Malley and the Dunedin Manufacturing Holdings team have done an outstanding job planning and executing the next chapter for OCHO.
So why are we doing all of this? We believe business should be all about people. Our team has been looking at how we will evaluate success and we have nailed it down to seven core areas:
Having so many shareholders from the beginning is something we are really proud of in developing the new OCHO factory. Not only do we have a great sense of accountability in our decision-making, but it is truly motivating to know thousands of people like what we do and why we do it.
So thank you to our community for getting behind the Own The Factory campaign. We hope to see all at our open days later in the year.
OCHO is a craft bean-to-bar chocolate company based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Having successfully campaigned to raise $2 million in just over one day, OCHO is set to give back to the community that supports their enterprise. Browse the range of single-origin premium chocolate on the website, www.ocho.co.nz. If you would like to get in touch with the OCHO team, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
| A OCHO release || February 10, 2018 |||
Feb 09, 2018 - Build the foundations strong is Andy Bryenton's headline for his article in The Record. He writes, Roads, races, driveways, feed pads — all areas on the farm where erosion from the elements takes a constant and costly toll. Wouldn’t it be nice to build a simple, strong foundation beneath these areas to stop runoff and prevent washboarding, cracking and slippage?
As autumn approaches and it comes time to consider the maintenance of all those exposed transit areas on the farm, along comes an innovation that could be a godsend for those who are sick of watching their hard work literally go down the drain culvert with each round of winter storms. Diamond Grid is the leading surface stabilisation grid system in Australasia, coming from worldwide tests in the agricultural, landscaping and mining industries. It is extremely rugged — think over one thousand tonnes per square metre when filled with gravel, sand or chip. Due to its unique grid structure, it’s permeable, preventing the runoff effect, which strips the surface of conventional roads, pads and races.
y eliminating erosion, rutting and puddling, ongoing maintenance costs are significantly reduced. That massive load rating — made for heavy vehicles — means that even a herd of cattle can’t make a dent in the interlocking grids — think of matted pieces that slide and lock like a building set. This form of construction increases the structural strength even more.
Diamond Grid has recently been introduced into New Zealand and by the end of 2017 a manufacturing plant is [sic] up and running in Christchurch — using recycled plastics from the auto industry. It’s a win-win for the environment and the farmer. Larger grids (1,000 x 1,000mm) are not available in New Zealand at this stage. These are mainly used on the big mining roads in South America. Rural-sized 900mm x 560mm grids cost a snap at just $15 each, and each one weighs just 3 kilos — easy to manhandle into place. They can even be trimmed with a simple skill saw for custom work. Then just fill with one of many kinds of filler and your surface is rocksteady and ready.
Diamond Grid has been used for pathways, driveways, shed floors, mountain bike paths, golf courses, car parks, drains, boat ramps, carports, horse stables, racecourse stables, horse walkers, cattle yards, feed and water trough pads, cattle walkways, creek crossings, day yards, workshop floors, truck depots, fuel station hard stands, excavator yards, mine access roads, haul roads, fire trails, air strips — the list goes on.
Now it’s ready to weather the test of time on local farms. If you’re ready to invest a little now to save huge headaches in years to come, start at the ground level and get on board with this handy innovation.
| A The Record release || February 08, 2018 |||
PYEONGCHANG/GOSEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – When South Korean businessman Park Nam-suh was forced to abandon his factory in a North Korean industrial complex two years ago, he thought his business was finished. Now, he dares to hope.
The Kaesong complex, funded by South Korean firms and manned by workers from the North, shut in 2016 after the South accused North Korea of taking workers’ wages to fund its arms programme.
But now South Korea is in the mood to re-engage with its old enemy, using its first Winter Olympics this month to attempt a thaw in relations — and giving Park and other former investors in Kaesong some hope that the industrial park can be revived.
(Inter-Korean commercial ties – http://tmsnrt.rs/2Eq1akx)
“I hope the Olympics will be a turning point in achieving inter-Korean peace and speeding up the reopening of the Kaesong complex. It should be,” said Park whose factory produced plastic toys, clothes hangers and cups.
He was one of 124 former Kaesong factory owners who set up a a booth at South Korea’s Olympics venue of Pyeongchang this week, screening videos to passers-by and featuring the slogan: “We need to go back”.
Continue here to read the full article by Hyunjoo Jin for REUTERS || February 08, 2018 |||
Feb 08, 2018 - Auckland Airport today announced that it will build a new 65,000m2 distribution centre and a support centre for Foodstuffs North Island Ltd. The facility will be developed within Stage 4 of The Landing Business Park and will be constructed over a three year period, with completion scheduled to occur in late-2020. The development will comprise a world-class distribution centre plus a 5-star green-rated support centre, situated in landscaped and park-like surroundings.
Feb 08, 2018 - Old harbor crane turned into luxury apartment for four in Amsterdam's Eastern dockyards. Its history, as told by Yays, is pretty interesting. Following the bombing of the original Eastern Docklands harbor cranes during World War II, the Royal Dutch Steamboat Company commissioned replacements, which were used until the 1970s. The site was eventually turned into a residential area and those replacement cranes were all demolished, save one: the Figee 2868 pictured, which was built in 1958.
Feb 07, 2018 - Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s leading airline operators, is set to launch a blockchain-based loyalty wallet to enhance and further frequent flyers’ spending of accumulated air miles.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), has announced its plan to launch a loyalty digital wallet based on blockchain technology for its KrisFlyer frequent-flyer program, enabling travelers to easily spend their air miles at retail partners. The application will help with ‘everyday spending’ of passengers’ digital KrisFlyer miles in ‘point-of-sale transactions at participating retail merchants,’ the announcement added.
Feb 06, 2018 - Update: Tuesday 6th February with only few tickets left at selected booking agents, whatsoninvers.nz can now confirm that the 2018 Bluff Oyster Festival is sold out!
Feb 06, 2018 - With over 83 million passengers traveling through Dubai International Airport, it was the world’s third busiest airport in 2016. The city itself is booming, with an annual population growth of just over 10%.
While it’s the undisputed business hub of the Middle East, Dubai has set an ambitious goal: To be the first blockchain-powered government in the world by 2020.
It’s a bold transition for the city but one that might not be as far-fetched as you think. Blockchain-powered smart cities are more attainable than people imagine. The uses for blockchain within cities are nearly endless, but there are some major areas where blockchain will represent a dramatic improvement.
Let’s look at a few of those areas to see how blockchain can impact city life in the coming years. After all, if Dubai’s experiment with blockchain-powered government works out, there’s no telling who might follow suit.
Inefficiencies
Cities around the world are already working to become what we call “smart cities.” They’re using IoT connected devices to do everything — from detecting gunshots to monitoring traffic and air quality.
And guess what? All of those IoT devices can be registered on the blockchain.
There are plenty of opportunities to add blockchain to city systems that are already connected. These systems gather plenty of data that could be placed on the blockchain. Upgrading to blockchain would make it easier for city governments to access and manage that data.
Say, when the light in an IoT connected lamp post goes out, it could trigger an automatic message to officials in charge of replacing it.
Right now, there are silos of data. Not every security camera or electronic lock is made by the same company. Not every parking garage uses the same parking sensors to determine capacity. If we could securely organize all of that data onto an interoperable backbone, then law enforcement (or government officials or whoever is allowed access to the data) would be able to get that access without going through multiple separate parties.
Blockchain could help solve many city inefficiencies almost immediately.
Public Safety
Communication and data sharing can have a positive effect on public safety as well. Recently, I had a conversation with a company in Boston who is trying to use the blockchain space for public safety data in police departments. Their data is very loosely organized. Silos of data are inaccessible to police stations in different neighborhoods within the same city. The current system is very rudimentary, partly because there’s no better way to share sensitive data between departments.
Blockchain can provide a secure system for sharing sensitive data. Wires won’t be crossed, and opportunities won’t be missed due to a lack of communication. This still has to be weighed against a citizen’s right to privacy and the government’s limit to tracking individuals. But it’s good to see people are talking about sharing data and working on preventative measures, such as analyzing crime statistics and planning police patrols around that information.
Public Transportation
Most major cities rely heavily on public transportation. Some of them can’t operate without it. There are opportunities to put blockchain to work here.
New York City recently awarded a $573 million-dollar contract to transition from their refillable MetroCard to electronic readers. Right now, New York commuters have to manually swipe the cards and refill with money as needed. In cities like San Francisco and London, you don’t even need a card. You can scan your phone and deduct payment from connected accounts such as Apple Pay or PayPal.
The next step would be to use a blockchain-based system for pay. If commuters have a blockchain wallet on their smartphone, they could pay for any transit pass, loyalty programs, or purchase without a card.
And that may give extra incentive to take public transport.
Smart Incentives
Another interesting aspect of blockchain-powered cities is how they can incentivize citizens to make positive decisions.
Here’s a hypothetical:
Say you decide to take public transportation to work every day this coming week instead of driving. When the wallet registers you’ve used public transportation all week, you get a discount on your energy bill for that month. Or maybe you’re credited for one free bus ride.
Whatever it is, the incentive has to gently push people towards ethical, sustainable, and transparent ways of consuming and producing goods and services.
This could lead to more sustainable, habitable cities with fewer issues and inefficiencies. At the end of the day, that’s what blockchain can help us accomplish — smarter, healthier cities. And if Dubai makes good on their goal in 2020, we may have an example to follow in just a few years.
Source: By Samantha Radocchia, Co-Founder at Chronicled (2015-present). Originally published on Quora. || February 6, 2018 |||
Feb 05, 2018 - The Taxpayers’ Union has referred Callaghan Innovation to the Ombudsman over their abuse of the Annual Report process to avoid responsibilities under the Official Information Act.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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