Oriens Capital is proud to report that for two consecutive years, the top award at the New Zealand International Business Awards (NZBIA) has been awarded to an Oriens Capital portfolio company.
The NZIBA are New Zealand’s most prestigious export awards. Run by Te Taurapa Tūhono, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), these awards date back 50+ years, and proudly track New Zealand’s history of successful export businesses.
Most recently, Rockit Global, an apple producer and marketer of the world’s first miniature apple and Oriens Capital’s very first portfolio company, won the overall Supreme Award at the 2022 awards as well as winning its category, Best Large Business. This win is testament to Rockit’s successful global strategy and shows just how far it has come since Oriens first made a minority investment in 2017. Rockit adds its two NZIBA awards to a list of other recent wins, including two Hawke’s Bay Export Awards, an Axis Award, gold at the Best Awards and Best Large Business at the China Business Awards earlier this year.
This follows, Bluelab, a global leader in the production of measurement and automation devices, winning the overall Supreme Award at the 2021 NZBIA awards, as well as its category award for Excellence in Digital Commerce Transformation. It was also a finalist in two other categories – Best Established Business and Innovation and Response to COVID-19. Oriens Fund 1 invested in Bluelab in 2018, as a minority shareholder alongside the founders, Greg and Mandy Jarvis, and sold its stake in October 2021 to Pioneer Capital and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
Peter Tinholt, Oriens Capital Partner comments “we are extremely proud to see several of our portfolio companies named as finalists in these awards over the years and to take out the top prize is such an honour. In both cases, we believe this is testament to the high calibre management teams and a focussed execution of strategy. We look forward to reporting more successes from Oriens portfolio companies (past, present and future!)”.
