Annual Awards 2008

AmCham-UPS Success & Innovation Awards

Managing Director Fonterra Ingredients, Andrei Mikalevsky, accepts the Supreme Award from Jeff Chandler of UPS.

Investment trumped import and export successes to win the Supreme Award at the AmCham-UPS Success & Innovation Awards last night at Auckland’s Hyatt Hotel, as New Zealand’s largest company, Fonterra, were named Investor of the Year and the Supreme Winner.

Fonterra’s win recognises the significance of their US$2.5 million investment in relocating their US headquarters to Chicago, moving closer to key customers, suppliers and dairy research centres. Fonterra also spent US$70 million in expanding their capabilities across the nine processing sites they operate within the US.

The Supreme Award is chosen from the winners of each of the five categories presented on the night. Fonterra, as Investor of the Year, beat out strong competition from Endace Ltd, winner of the Exporter of the Year over $5M, Wellington Drive Technologies, Exporter of the Year $500K – $5M, Thereon Holdings Ltd, Exporter of the Year under $500K, and Importer of the Year, Tidd Ross Todd.

The AmCham-UPS Awards, staged in conjunction with Air New Zealand, celebrate success and innovation in the import, export and investment sectors between New Zealand and its second largest trading partners the US.

New Zealand’s bilateral trade relationship with the US is worth more than $8 billion annually and the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand is constantly looking for opportunities to enhance and expand business and trade relationships within the private and public sectors, said AmCham president Mark Fitz-Gerald. The annual Success & Innovation Awards provides an opportunity to showcase companies that have demonstrated imagination, innovation and entrepreneurship, and to honour and celebrate their achievements.

In attendance at the awards was US Ambassador to New Zealand, William P. McCormick who presented the Importer of the Year Award, along with the Minister of Economic Development, Hon. Pete Hodgson, who presented the exporter categories.

In addition to AmCham, UPS and Air New Zealand, the awards are supported by Baldwins, Ernst and Young and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

Previous winners of the Supreme Award have included Zespri International, Peace Software, Airways Corporation, HumanWare, Tenon, Orion Systems International, Zeacom and last year's winner SMI Group.