Sustained innovation excellence
Gallagher Group has consistently produced innovative agricultural products and services for over 50 years
IT ALL BEGAN in the 1930s, when farmer, inventor, engineer, businessman and commercial fisherman Bill Gallagher set up an electric circuit to charge the car that Joe the Horse was using as a scratching post. Joe stopped scratching.
Gallagher built his first electric fence in 1937, which was used as part of stock management on his underdeveloped farm, and formally established Gallagher Engineering in 1963 with £ 3,000 capital.
Since then the company has perfected electric fence design and established it as an essential way to manage stock on farms. It was this, plus the company’s history of innovative products in areas ranging from weighing scales to electronic animal identification, from water monitoring systems to gate hardware, which won it the inaugural Sustained Innovation Excellence award. JUDGES COMMENTS: Gallagher’s two 2014 entries (the Ring Top Post and the T20 Terminal card access reader and alarms management system) were finalists an incredible six times. And in 2013, a Gallagher innovation was a finalist in another two categories. With this award we recognise a culture and systems of innovation that have resulted in sustained market success. Gallagher's use of "learning first product development", design thinking, and a culture of innovation are clearly working. approached Snap Information Technologies, a Nelson-based company producing 360- degree, solar-powered cameras, software and cloud storage systems. Could they produce a video recording system which could replace human observers? Snap founders Chris and Andrew Rodley – who had initially developed their cameras after being shocked at the poor quality images coming from the imported webcam their father was using to keep an eye on his holiday home – thought they could. In a partnership with Trident Systems, the Ministry of Primary Industries, and the fishing industry, it developed a high-resolution, integrated video observation unit. “Trials in New Zealand and in the Fiji tuna fisheries have proved successful and SnapIT will be moving their technology to market with Trident Systems following the end of these trials,” Rodley says. “This will impact world fisheries in a positive way, creating sustainability and accountability, and providing valuable scientific data.”