Zespri was recognised on Thursday night in the 2017 Deloitte Top 200 Awards for its strong growth strategy, with the kiwifruit marketing company on track to more than double global sales to NZ$4.5bn by 2025.
The Deloitte Top 200 Awards recognises business excellence and noteworthy leadership in New Zealand, with the award given across 10 categories. The awards were presented in front of an audience of business leaders at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
In a media statement, Zespri chief executive officer Dan Mathieson said the 2degrees Best Growth Strategy award is welcome recognition for the work done across the industry to grow 'a genuine global sales and marketing organisation' and drive demand for Zespri’s premium kiwifruit.
“This award is real testament to the great team we have at Zespri – passionate, dedicated people around the world who bring to life our global grower-to-consumer strategy day in and day out – and the long-term partnerships we have with our customers,” said Mathieson.
“Kiwifruit is big business in New Zealand but it only makes up 1.5 per cent of the globally-traded fruitbowl so we see huge potential to grow the overall category.
“How are we going to double sales in seven years? We’ll continue to grow market demand for our products by building our premium Zespri brand and kiwifruit products to best meet the needs of our growing consumer base with a relentless commitment to quality, taste and safety.”
Zespri also sees innovation as key to driving its ambitious growth targets. The kiwifruit industry invests around NZ$35m a year in innovation, with more than half of this invested in Zespri’s joint new varieties breeding programme with Plant & Food Research, developing new products to attract new consumers and grow the overall category.
“Ours is a collaborative industry and to hit this ambitious target, we’re working with growers, post-harvest and our other supply chain partners to invest and build capability and capacity to achieve the significant opportunity that lies ahead of us,” said Mathieson.
A recent report from the University of Waikato showed that the New Zealand kiwifruit industry is on track to create another 29,000 jobs and triple GDP contribution to over NZ$6bn by 2030, with Zespri’s gold variety SunGold being a key driver, according to the media statement.
“Doubling sales in the next seven years would mean over NZ$3bn returned to communities around New Zealand – our export returns were NZ$1.6bn to New Zealand last season and this will double by 2025. This is a vital contributor to communities in kiwifruit growing regions across New Zealand,” Mathieson said.
Read a full interview with Zespri’s CEO Dan Mathieson in the November 2017 edition of Asiafruit. To order your copy, email to subscriptions@fruitnet.com
