Awards honour best of business
Zespri the night’s big winner at Deloitte Top 200 event
Kiwifruit exporter Zespri has been crowned Company of the Year at the prestigious Deloitte Top 200 Awards. Russel Creedy of Restaurant Brands — the company which runs the KFC, Carl’s Jnr and Pizza Hut brands in New Zealand — has been named Chief Executive of the Year.
The Deloitte Top 200 Index consists of New Zealand’s largest entities ranked by revenue. The awards event, held at Spark Arena last night, acknowledged business excellence and leadership across 10 award categories.
This year’s event theme was “The Power of Purpose”, which celebrates companies with a strong sense of purpose and the courage to embrace change.
The kiwifruit industry is a great example of how to add value to primary sector exports and a classic New Zealand innovation success story, said judging panel convenor and NZME Editorial Director-Business Fran O’Sullivan.
“Zespri lifted its profits by 38 per cent to $101.8 million in 2018 on $2.4b of sales, and it expects higher returns still in 2019,” O’Sullivan said.
“These returns represent the culmination of its long-term strategy and dedication to innovation. Over the past five years, Zespri’s total shareholder return has increased at a compound average rate of 80 per cent per annum.”
Zespri chairman Peter McBride took out the Chairperson of the Year award.
Restaurant Brands’ Creedy was recognised for his success in turning around the company’s domestic operations and then leading an international expansion into Australia and Hawaii.
“Restaurant Brands’ ability to grow domestically while expanding overseas through new acquisitions has seen its value steadily increase in 2018,” O’Sullivan said.
“Creedy’s leadership style has evolved over the years, and with a strong team in place and local operations performing well he’s been able to spend more time on strategic thinking.
“This has enabled Restaurant Brands to make expansive — and thus far highly lucrative — moves into Australia and Hawaii, which will underpin [growth] for the company.”
AUT professor and former MP Dr Marilyn Waring was awarded the Visionary Leader title this year for her pioneering work on the economic importance of women’s unpaid work, and focus on the inequalities of globalisation.
Other award winners included ASB’s Jon Raby who took out Chief Financial Officer of the Year.
The award for Excellence Governance went to fishing company Sanford.
Trade Me’s chief financial officer Caroline Rawlinson won the Young Executive of the Year.
Construction company Fulton Hogan took out Best Growth Strategy. Skellerup Holdings was recognised for Most Improved Performance and SkyCity took out the award for Diversity and Inclusion Leadership.