Kegstar has acquired Keg Lease Pty Ltd, a specialist keg leasing company that focusses on the Australian craft beer industry.

Keg Lease was previously owned by brewing ingredients supplier Bintani.

“Since commencing operations in December 2012, Keg Lease has grown to be a major supplier of keg leasing services in the Australian market with in excess of 21,000 kegs currently leased to over 125 customers,” Bintani said in a statement.

“We now feel the time is right for Kegstar to continue the growth of Keg Lease with its strong access to capital as part of Brambles and the opportunity to provide integrated keg solutions that incorporate both leasing and pooling.”Kegstar has incorporated the Keg Lease fleet into its current operations, giving brewers and other beverage manufacturers the option of keg pooling or keg leasing services.

Kegstar General Manager, Nick Boots, said: “This exciting acquisition provides Kegstar customers with with a broader variety of flexible keg management options to match their needs. Having a comprehensive leasing option alongside Kegstar’s well-established keg pooling solutions will be attractive to a broader catchment of producers. We will launch the Keg Lease business in New Zealand in October.”

Kegstar launched in 2012, with global supply chain logistics company Brambles acquiring a 30% stake in the company in 2014 and taking complete ownership on 1 December 2015.The acquisition means Kegstar can now offer customers branded kegs.

Kegstar CEO Adam Trippe-Smith told Brews News: “There’s proven to be a demand for keg leasing for either start-up phase breweries, or single state breweries or breweries that want branding on the keg. Up until now we haven’t offered that and we do see a demand for it. If that’s what customers want, we want to be able to offer it to them.”

Bintani Australia will remain involved in selling and repairing kegs through its Keg Services operations.

| A Drinks Bulletin release  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Celebrating 30 years of food innovation

The finalists have been announced for the prestigious New Zealand Food Awards 2017, recognising Kiwi companies for their outstanding innovations in New Zealand’s food and beverage industry.

Now in its 30th year, the awards, powered by Massey University, celebrate the creative innovations from New Zealand’s artisanal and large-scale food and beverage manufacturers.

Finalists have submitted their finest products in the hopes of taking out one of the top awards, including the Artisan Food Producer Award, BITE Gourmet Award, Export Innovation Awards and the coveted Massey University Supreme Award.

The high-calibre finalist line-up includes a diverse range of food and beverage producers from across New Zealand.

Massey University Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas says she is proud of the role that the New Zealand Food Awards have played in recognising and promoting innovation and excellence in food and beverage production and manufacturing over the past 30 years.

“The New Zealand Food Awards take great pride in celebrating New Zealand’s progressive food and beverage industry and every year we are impressed by the calibre of the finalists,” Professor Thomas says. “The awards provide local producers with the opportunity to elevate their business on a global scale.”

The New Zealand Food Awards is excited to welcome back their expert judging panel, including Bite magazine’s Ray McVinnie, chef Geoff Scott, as well as World Kitchen television host and chef Nici Wickes. For the first time, New Zealand’s first certified cicerone (beer expert), Josh Scott, joined the judging panel.

Mr McVinnie says he is “absolutely blown-away” at the calibre of this year’s finalists. “I have had some major ‘wow’ moments throughout the judging process and it was fantastic to see modern technology used to produce food that is completely natural and fresh.”

Mr Scott shared the same sentiment, saying, “The finalists are inventive, original, resourceful and clear food and beverage industry leaders in New Zealand. There is an immense variety across all the catego-ries and it is really fascinating because you get to see innovative ideas and fantastic produce from all parts of New Zealand.”

Ms Wickes says, “We have such a vast array of fantastic ingredients and products available to us now and the NZ Food Awards do an exceptional job of highlighting those. Every year I get a steer on what is going to become more fashionable, what is popular, and what is next on the horizon!”

Winning products are eligible to use the New Zealand Food Awards “Quality Mark”, which highlights the superiority of products to both consumers and industry, and can help boost sales and distribution do-mestically and internationally.

The New Zealand Food Awards winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner at Sky City Convention Cen-tre, emceed by broadcaster Kerry McIvor on October 12. For more information, please visit www.foodawards.co.nz.

The New Zealand Food Awards is made possible thanks to Massey University and the family of strategic and supporting partners – Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development, Countdown, FoodHQ, The FoodBowl, The New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology, Ministry for Primary Indus-tries, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, NZME, Review Publishing, XPO Exhibitions, RangeMe, Brother Design, Palmerston North City Council and Villa Maria.

| A Foodworks release  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Support for TPP11 and the wider trade agenda by the incoming government is crucial for New Zealand now and in the future, says the EMA.

The need to speed up the growth of exporting was one of the key recommendations in the EMA 2017 ElectionManifesto.

“As a nation we rely heaving on trade for jobs and growth. With a population the size of ours, we need a vibrant exporting sector for New Zealand’s prosperity, says Kim Campbell, CEO, EMA.

“Which is why it’s vital whoever is in government in the next term ensures our trade agenda progresses and remains on track.

“We, along with our sister organisation Export New Zealand, support the current push to have 90 per cent of exports covered by free trade agreements, along push with all efforts to bring TPP11 over the line.

“It’s important our exporters have clarity on market access, tariffs and intellectual property with our trading partners.

“For instance, we need to have a trade agreement with Japan – which TPP11 delivers. If we don’t we will be left behind,” says Mr Campbell.

The EMA also encourages the rapid resolution of a free trade deal with the European Union, the pursuit of a similar agreement with the United Kingdom as it exits the EU and welcomes and steps to speed up the finalising of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership among the 16 Asia-Pacific economies involved.

| An EMA Release  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Rangiora-based Vaico​ is the latest Canterbury firm to come up with new seismic technology.

Co-director Ashton How and his brothers set up the business 10 years ago dealing in above-ceiling installations.

After the earthquakes they turned their full focus to seismic bracing of storage racks holding pallets of goods.

Ashton How, of Rangiora-based Vaico, which makes bracing systems for racking systems in warehouses.

Safety in distribution warehouses and supermarkets become a major issue in 2011 when Canterbury experienced 14,000 earthquakes, approximately.

Like many of the best inventions, the solutions appeared self evident in hindsight - a bar that falls down when shaking starts to prevent pallets moving.

When shaking starts, the Vaico seismic restraint bar falls down to stop pallets in the rack from moving.

"We had many rejected prototypes but we got there in the end. The big thing was to make a device that didn't interfere with normal work and the ability to access goods."

The patented restraint device can be retrofitted on any existing facility without changing the racking configuration.

How said insurers were keen on the restraining systems which could potentially save money as well as improving safety for warehouse workers and forklift drivers - a typical pellet could weigh between 800 kilograms and 1 tonne.

A pellet could contain hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of liquor.

And the safety issue was more imperative in the case of storing pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, How said.

Challenges along the way included finding the right type of steel, which Vaico gets tested by a Christchurch engineer.

"We could licence the manufacturing out but we have to be able to guarantee the quality of the steel and that becomes difficult when you involve third parties.

"We use New Zealand manufactured steel which probably costs almost twice as much as steel imported from China.

"But when we looked at some from China the strengths were laughable and you wonder why they would even make it."

The company, which employs 30 people, has geared up to cater for the lift in business by commissioning a second factory at Rangiora, and setting up an office in Auckland.

Vaico has a distribution and installation agreement with a company called Dexion which has examples of the racking system on its web site.

The company also has a partnership with US market leader International Seismic Application Technologies.

"They are very interested in it and we'll use that relationship to take it to the North American market," How said.

| Source: PeopleRead  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Productivity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for higher wages and standard of living.

Shamubeel Eaqub says ease of doing business and relatively low levels of reported corruption are clearly not enough to improve New Zealand's productivity.

New Zealand has a productivity problem. We are working harder to grow the economy, but we aren't getting much better at it. Poor productivity has plagued New Zealand for the past 40 years. We have a productivity problem. The problem is not new, there are no easy fixes, and doing more of the same will most certainly not fix it. We should not pretend that any of the political parties have a convincing plan to fix it.

A problem that has persisted for four decades will take long-term structural reform across a number of areas, including education, training, international connections, competition, research, development and commercialisation. And this will have to be led by an independent state sector that answers to the public, not just be ministers' puppets.

Productivity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for higher wages and standard of living. It is possible to have strong productivity growth, but the gains can accrue to a small concentration of capital owners, rather than widely through the economy.

New Zealand has less of a problem of sharing productivity gains, than having productivity gains in the first place. Low productivity explains a long growing wedge in wages between New Zealand and Australia.

Our GDP per person was similar to Australia's before the 1970s. Since then, Australia has grown faster and a wedge has opened up. The cause was lower productivity in New Zealand.

It is not because our economy is different, rather that we are not good at how we do things. We work really hard but we can't seem to make more profits and pay better wages.

Whether we talk about productivity or inequality, one leads to the conclusion that we have low quality economic growth. Growth for the sake of growth doesn't make sense, the point of growth is to have a more prosperous and fairer society - and to ensure that we are staying within the limits of nature.

There has been a lot of research work on productivity – the lack of it – in New Zealand. The OECD, The Treasury and The Productivity Commission all have useful and helpful work on it.

Our ease of doing business and relatively low levels of reported corruption are clearly not enough. Neither is our seemingly well-educated population. This led to much navel gazing and talk of the productivity puzzle. That we are small, distant and uncompetitive in many areas has become increasingly apparent.

Our country is too small. Many of our businesses face little competition and incentive to invest in new innovations. Many of our businesses and the markets they sell to are too small to adopt new and expensive ideas, processes or equipment.

The businesses that scale tend to be global. This interaction really helps, but not always. Exporting is risky and many businesses that have foreign investment are no more productive than other businesses.

What we have done so far hasn't worked. If we want to make change, it must be a gradual and long-term investment in making our education system more responsive to what our economy needs. Our businesses must invest more in training, workforce planning and career development. Our capital market and tax system need an overhaul to direct money to entrepreneurship and investment. We have to keep embracing globalisation to give our little economy semblance of scale.

There is a plethora of policy areas that need to work in concert to make slow-moving and long-term change. The public service must lead this narrative to set out the policies that will solve four decades of disappointing productivity. These policies need to be based on evidence and not tied to ideology. Because the policies have to be long-term, they must survive changes in political leadership.

Right now, the public service is not capable of delivering this. It stays away from policies the minister does not like. It pulls its punches, to please its political masters. The public is underserved by this servitude of the public service to the politicians, rather than to the public.

The problems of productivity in New Zealand are four decades old. Its long enough to move past denial and acceptance to resolution.

| Source peopleread  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Three and half years ago, Roman and Andrea Jewell, who was expecting the couples  first child at the time, started Fix & Fogg.  Previously both lawyers, they made the choice to leave behind the corporate life and dedicate their time and energy to creating something meaningful, sustainable, and delicious.

They decided to make the world’s best peanut butter.

They love that they make every jar of Fix & Fogg peanut butter from start to finish in their factory in Wellington. From designing  labels to  carefully blended peanut butter, they are completely hands-on throughout the entire process.

They think the award-winning peanut butters are so popular because people can taste the difference in a product that’s handmade by humans who care about quality.

Continue here to read more about the Fix & Fogg journey here

A new Infrastructure Commission raises hopes of a more strategic approach to New Zealand infrastructure, says BusinessNZ.

Chief Executive Kirk Hope says the new body would be more politically durable if independent of the government of the day.

"It should also be independent of a single government department and made up of more than just a merger of the infrastructure and PPP units of Treasury."

The governance of the new body would matter to business and BusinessNZ offered to work with Government and other stakeholders to flesh out details.

"The new Commission should start with a long-term view of infrastructure needs set against a range of scenarios depending on New Zealand's likely growth prospects.

"Business would like to see more growth-enhancing infrastructure built using investment by private sector partners, recouped through usage, to reduce the funding burden on taxpayers," Mr Hope said.

| A BusinessNZ release  ||  September 2,  2017   |||

"The National Party’s announcement today that, if elected, it will set up an independent National Infrastructure Commission should have cross party support," says Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive, Stephen Selwood.

"Establishment of such a body will bring New Zealand’s infrastructure practices up to speed with Australia, the UK, Canada and other leading countries.

"The UK’s National Infrastructure Commission was established in 2015 to provide independent, strategic thinking, analysis and advice to address the UK’s long-term infrastructure needs.

"A New Zealand infrastructure commission needs to be charged with equivalent responsibility. This would include investigating and recommending responses to our most pressing issues in housing, freshwater quality and congestion, in addition to oversight of project delivery, procurement, and the national infrastructure pipeline.

"The size of the infrastructure workload ahead means we have to make the most of every dollar spent. Having a public entity working in New Zealand's best interests and with expertise in project delivery is critical.

"National’s announcement today is focussed on leveraging private sector capital and expertise through Public Private Partnerships.

"PPPs are an important component of any rational infrastructure delivery programme, but the Commission needs to encompass all forms of project delivery, regardless of whether or not private capital is involved.

"Successive surveys by Infrastructure NZ and other evidence shows that New Zealand’s infrastructure procurement can significantly be improved and international experience shows there are billions of dollars of benefit from doing so.

"Having our best and most experienced people involved when the Government buys large and complex assets like motorways, railways, schools, and hospitals minimises the risk of mistakes and capitalises on the investment opportunity.

"It’s not only individual projects which will benefit from a new body. A clear and committed national infrastructure pipeline has for many years been an industry priority. Businesses who deliver assets on behalf of governments need to know what’s ahead and if the Commission can provide greater certainty around this it will make a big difference to investment and productivity in the sector.

"These are the reasons why Canada, through Partnerships BC and Infrastructure Ontario, the UK, through the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and Scottish Futures Trust, and Australia through Infrastructure NSW and Major Projects Victoria have all picked up the model.

"Some of the greatest benefits could be realised from using the Commission to assist local government with its $50 billion infrastructure programme. Bundling council projects and supporting our smallest infrastructure providers with specialist knowledge will reduce project overruns and help provide better services at lower cost to ratepayers.

"For the Commission to be successful, it will need arm’s length independence from the Government, like the Commerce Commission or Reserve Bank, to ensure that it acts apolitically in New Zealand’s long term interests.

"A specialist infrastructure body is a really positive step forward for New Zealand. It is a bi-partisan response to New Zealand’s infrastructure needs and should receive cross-party support," Selwood says.

| An Infrastructure New Zealand release || September 1, 2017   |||

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Trade negotiators from Canada and the United States gathered under rainy skies in Mexico City on Friday to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the mood darkened by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to pull out.

Teams from the three countries were due to kick off a second round of talks on 25 areas of discussion, with subjects such as digital commerce and small businesses seen as areas where consensus was possible, Mexican officials said.

The Sept. 1-5 round will also touch on more thorny topics such as rules governing local content in products made in North America, Mexico's economy ministry said in a statement. Mexican officials believe Trump wants to include rules that some content must be made in the United States.

Trump's attacks on NAFTA are seen by Mexican and Canadian officials as a negotiating ploy to wring concessions, but they have heightened uncertainty over the accord. Away from the diplomatic noise, the Mexico round of talks is expected to help define the priorities of each nation rather than yield major advances.

Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by telephone on Thursday and stressed they wanted to reach an agreement on NAFTA by the end of the year, the White House said. If they achieve that, it could set a record among the fastest multinational trade negotiation.

The goal is to get a deal before Mexico's 2018 presidential campaign starts in earnest. Officials fear the campaign will politicize talks, with nationalist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already recommending a tougher line from Mexico.

Nevertheless, one Mexican official noted that Trump's threats had put pressure on his negotiators, forcing them to adopt tougher positions "than they would like," while another official said they were ready to leave the table if needed.

Negotiators predict that there would not be substantial discussion of areas of friction in either this round or the next one, a source familiar with the process said.

"We do not expect any major breakthroughs or major developments in this round. We really don't," the source said.

TRUMP THREATS

Trump said this week he might trigger a 180-day countdown to withdraw from NAFTA while the talks were ongoing to help meet his goals, which include sharply reducing a $64 billion annual U.S. trade deficit with Mexico.

NAFTA, first implemented in 1994, eliminates most tariffs on trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Critics say it has drawn jobs from the United States and Canada to Mexico, where workers are paid far lower wages. Supporters say it has created U.S. jobs, and the loss of manufacturing from the United States has more to do with China than Mexico.

If NAFTA collapses, costs could rise for hundreds of billions of dollars of trade as tariffs are brought back. Free-trade lobby groups say consumers would be saddled with higher prices and less availability of products ranging from avocados and berries to heavy trucks.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told officials in Washington on Wednesday that Mexico would walk away from the negotiations if Trump pulls the trigger on withdrawing from the deal.

Amid Trump's warnings, Mexico is preparing for something hard to imagine even a few months ago - life without the agreement that boosted trilateral trade to around $1 trillion annually.

Juan Pablo Castanon, president of Mexico's Business Coordination Council representing the private sector in the talks, said Mexico's "Plan B" could be up and running within three months of an eventual NAFTA collapse.

Talking on Mexican television, he said the plan was focused on striking new trade arrangements in Asia and Latin America, sourcing alternate suppliers such as Brazil for grains now imported from the United States, and finding ways to recreate investor guarantees that are included in NAFTA.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto travels to China this weekend for talks about trade and investment, while Mexican negotiators were due to take part in trade talks with South American nations, Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday.

Mexico's status as the biggest foreign buyer of yellow corn from the United States gives it some leverage in the NAFTA talks, with corn-growing states that voted for Trump in 2016 emerging as a powerful voice that is opposed to scrapping the deal.

(Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

|  A RealNewsNow release  ||  September 2,  2017   |||

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