Seasoned hulls go far at sea and on land
Awise man once told me that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money. Taking no notice of this insightful advice, I recently bought half a share in a 40-year-old yacht based out of Nelson marina.
The yacht, a Farr Moonshine 35, had been lovingly maintained by its previous owner for the past 15 years and has provided me with a voyage of discovery into the basics of sailing, the marina ecosystem and the Nelson region.
In terms of sailing, this has led to an appreciation of how the vectors of wind and rudder together deliver torque and speed; simple in theory but full of foibles in practice.
The marina ecosystem has been a new world to me, opening my eyes to the warm community of characters who live part-time and fulltime on the water. Characters who are only too pleased to help a learner or offer a cuppa of boat tea.
And in terms of the Nelson region, it’s been a deeper understanding of a part of the country I’ve only skimmed over before.
One of the things I’ve noticed is a parochial passion for local businesses to push local products. Some inclement weather over Easter saw us taking the kids to local activities like the WOW Museum and the Cable Bay Adventure Park.
Walk into either and you will find them only too happy to sell you a bottle of Chia Sisters energy drink, a Pic’s Peanut Butter Slug, or a bag of Proper Crisps kumara chips.
Taken at a surface level, this is a pleasing example of local businesses supporting each other. But dig beneath the surface and there’s a another dynamic at work.
Proper Crisps is owned and operated by Ned and Mina Smith, a couple who cut their commercial teeth on a cake and bakery business in the United States.
From small beginnings in San Diego, they built up the Nemos bakery to employ more than 400 staff. They then sold the business and ended up relocating to Nelson in 2010.
What that meant is that when the Proper Crisps opportunity came up, they were able to apply seasoned business knowledge to a new segment.
Today they have more than 40 staff, export to Australia and have taken on Griffins Foods as a shareholder. A great growing of economic value for the Nelson region.
Pic’s Peanut Butter has a similar but different tale. Pic Picot grew up in the food business, with his dad being a grocer and his broader family responsible for establishing grocery giant Progressive Enterprises, which owns Countdown supermarkets. It was a business he ended up finding ‘‘incredibly boring’’.
With an iconoclastic heart, Pic decided to sail around the Pacific and ended up running a sailing school business in Nelson. Then one day, 10 years ago, he ripped into some regular peanut butter and found it super sweet.
He reckoned he could do better. And he did. Today Pic’s Peanut Butter is a Deloitte Fast 50 company and produces about $50 million worth of peanut, cashew and almond butter a year. Not bad.
Nelson sisters Chloe and Florence Van Dyke took a slightly different path. Chloe is a neuroscientist and has qualifications in herbal medicine.
Both sisters and their dad, Ben, were nationallevel athletes but had struggled with energy drinks that tended to be chocka with artificial ingredients and a lot of sugar.
Chloe turned to the seed from the ancient chia plant to power a range of drinks containing one of the richest plant sources of nutrients in the world.
The two sisters called themselves and their business Chia Sisters and today export their drinks to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. And they do it all from a solar-powered bottling plant just off Tahunanui Beach in Nelson.
Three different businesses but all choosing to base themselves in the provinces and drawing on previous knowledge. And in the case of two of them, choosing a province as a lifestyle choice after previous business success.
It seems to me that there’s a pattern here that’s worth identifying and emulating if we’re serious about stimulating economic growth in the regions.
The first part is about connecting local entrepreneurs and businesses. In Nelson that takes the form of the Mahitahi Colab, a shared space hub where fast-growing businesses can connect, learn and speed their rate of growth.
The second part has to be about actively targeting serial entrepreneurs locally and overseas, and attracting them to the regions.
This so they can take their experience and capital to create further economic value in the provinces while living the lifestyle that places like Tasman, Hawke’s Bay and Northland can deliver.
Local economic development agencies can lead this charge, but they need the help of Immigration New Zealand to make it fire.
The final part is about making it as easy as possible for these businesses to go from distributing locally to selling globally. At the end of the day we’re a tiny market.
One of the first things I’ve learnt from buying a boat is that proven hulls are everything – be they Woollacotts, Davidsons or Farrs. Hulls that are seasoned from previous voyages.
Based on what I saw in Nelson over Easter, the same appears true in regional business.
It seems to me that there’s a pattern here that’s worth identifying and emulating if we’re serious about stimulating economic growth in the regions.