“The awards provide an opportunity to celebrate and showcase excellence in business and innovation by rural women,” RWNZ national president Fiona Gower said.
“In deciding to continue with the awards this year we realised there has never been a better time to recognise and support women who own and operate rural businesses,” Gower said.
NZI executive manager commercial underwriting Christina Chellew, who represented NZI as one of the judges on the panel, says this year saw an extremely high calibre of entrants.
“The judges were highly impressed with the calibre of entrants in this year’s awards, especially in the innovation and resilience each has shown against the background of covid-19,” she said.
“It was extremely difficult to select our category winners as there were so many incredible entrants.”
Presentation of the awards to the seven category winners and the announcement of the overall supreme award winner will take place at an awards ceremony in Wellington on November 20.
Category award winners
The Creative Arts category, acknowledging a business that specialises in creative arts working in a rural environment or using raw materials went to Rebecca Tosswill for her Farmers Daughter Design Studio.
Specialising in agri-business design, Farmers Daughter Design builds business brands in the back blocks of rural NZ.
Tosswill owns and operates her studio from a sheep and beef farm in the Wairarapa hill country, where she supports and mentors rural women in business.
She recognises how this contributes to creating strong, resilient and vibrant rural communities, while using her creative and design skills, and embracing her farming heritage and rural values to help others reach their potential.
The Emerging Business category was won by Chelsea Millar of Grass Roots Media.
Millar and her team draw on their rural roots to create and manage social media communications and campaigns for the food and fibre sector.
Passionate about digital communications, Millar knows the importance of being nimble in creating each client’s social media strategy to reflect their business.
Located in Manawatu but operating in the digital world, Grass Roots Media has flourished in making the agricultural sector more visible by opening online conversations about goings on in rural NZ.
The Love of the Land, harnessing the potential of NZ’s land, environment or products of the land in creating a successful business enterprise was won by Sarah Higgins who owns and operates Higgins Shearing in Marlborough.
A competitive and world record holding shearer, Higgins’ passion for shearing and commitment to producing quality results, while having fun doing it, is what makes her brand stand out.
Higgins Shearing is firmly rooted in its local community where she assists in organising and sponsoring local shearing events and professional development for shearers and wool handlers.
Higgins also mentors and supports upcoming women shearers, while making an outstanding contribution to the wool industry and shearing community.
Kate Ivey Fitness took out the Rural Health and Wellbeing Excellence category recognising outstanding contribution to supporting the health and wellness of rural communities
Ivey’s business was born out of her own struggle to consistently live a healthy lifestyle, despite having qualifications and extensive experience in the health and fitness industry.
Living on a South Canterbury high country station meant that she was quite some way from the nearest gym and she also realised that there were many other rural women exactly like her.
In 2017 Ivey launched DediKate, an online health and fitness community and app for NZ women.
The community now has 1400 members with Ivey’s workouts streamed from her Mackenzie high country home location.
Henrietta Purvis was the innovation winner, a category that recognises an enterprise that challenges the status quo to bring something new to the market.
North Otago-based Purvis Feeds grew out of Henrietta and husband Graeme’s shared love for horses, this and the inspirational find of an old chaff cutter under a tree on a farm, set them off on their business journey.
Purvis is a hands-on business owner spending time on the books and in the cutting shed.
Making the most of strong relationships with their lucerne and rapeseed growers means Purvis Feeds is now recognised as a leading brand of animal feed and the first brand in NZ to infuse premium lucerne chaff with cold-pressed rapeseed oil to create a premium product.
The Rural Champion winner, awarded to a person or business who goes above and beyond in supporting the rural sector or rural enterprise, went to Sue Wilson of SMW Design.
Wilson has long been a champion for her rural community as a dedicated volunteer who embraces new projects and knows how to turn community dreams into reality.
SMW Design works with rural businesses and community groups in initiating projects that help to break down rural isolation including community events, fundraising initiatives, brand identity and design.
Her business grew out of passion for her Wairoa community, where she also runs a sheep and beef trading operation with her husband and has several off-farm business interests.
Lisa Brink’s, The Baked Dane, took out the Bountiful Table category for a rural business embracing diverse and unique natural resources to deliver exceptional foods or beverages.
The Bake Dane creates Scandinavian-inspired baked goods with Lisa drawing her inspiration from her childhood in Denmark where she was surrounded by family and people who loved working with food.
Brinks started The Baked Dane as a hobby while on maternity leave but her baked goods were so instantly popular that she has given away her day job and is now firmly ensconced in her kitchen in Horowhenua making delicious bread and crackers.
The RWNZ Business Awards are sponsored by the Ministry for Primary Industries, Hynds Limited, Access Community Health, Jarden Partners Limited, Havana Coffee Works, the Public Trust Hall and the Ministry for Women.
