Palamountains Vitapower opens new factory

I’m delighted to be here for the opening of a pet food factory.

I feel a particular affection for pet food, because I’ve lost count of the number of times my political career has been likened to pet food.

Just about the best thing in my job is the opportunity to see close at hand the success of growing New Zealand businesses.

There is an amazing amount of innovation happening in New Zealand.

Some of it is only rarely heard about.

In fact, New Zealand is an incredibly entrepreneurial country.

A Global study of entrepreneurship will be published next month (GEM).

It shows that about fourteen per cent of New Zealanders, or one in seven of us, can be described as entrepreneurs.

That is more than any other country in the world.

From what I can gather Vitapower is typical of the innovation and entrepreneurship of successful New Zealand companies.

It has developed an innovative product and commercialised its good ideas.

Vitapower is also a company with a global mindset.

The company was founded in only 2001, so its growth has been impressive.

It exports 95% of its production to over thirty countries.

We need a lot more companies succeeding like this.

New Zealand simply doesn’t have enough large, innovative businesses selling high-value products to the world.

In fact, we export a lower proportion of complex manufactured goods than any other developed country.

That’s why our incomes are much lower overall.

We need far more high value industries in New Zealand.

A raw log is worth about $70 a square metre.

Process it into kitset housing or furniture, and it’s worth $3000 a square metre.

The cellphone handset manufacturer Nokia used to be a forestry company.

Now it manufactures handsets - [SHOW PHONE]

Its latest products are worth not $70, not $3000, but $700,000 a square metre.

That is why I get excited about the development of high value new industries.

If we want high incomes, more jobs and strong vibrant regions, we need to build on our strengths, and the creativity of New Zealanders.

As I understand the Vitapower story, that is what you are doing.

Animal nutrition business is a good example of building on our strengths and adding value.

We have unique strengths in high-value industries formed from our farming heritage.

E.g. Livestock improvement

New Zealand needs creative businesses because it’s not easy for New Zealand companies to reach world-scale markets.

If you want to be a hundred million dollar company in New Zealand, you have to be an exporter.

If you want to be the same size company in Los Angeles, you probably don’t have to leave town, and certainly not your state.

Our success in exporting will be determined not by being lowest cost, but by being the most innovative and creative.

Fortunately, New Zealand’s small size and isolation means we’re used to being creative.

As Lord Rutherford said, ‘we don’t have much money, so we have to think.’

Our skills and talents are important.

I would like to acknowledge the investment in research this company is making in its partnership with Massey University.

Massey is assisting with R&D, scientific trials and marketing.

Relationships between business and our tertiary institutions are important to our future.

The government is looking to develop them further.

For example, a Manawatu Bio-commerce Centre has been established as the result of a Major Regional Initiative between the Government and the Manawatu region.

Initiatives like regional partnerships are making a difference to our economy, along with sound management of the economy and some favourable trading conditions.

We are enjoying the best period of stable economic growth in a generation.

Last year our growth rate topped the OECD.

Instead of sliding down the national income tables - as we have been for thirty years -- we nudged up to rejoin the world’s top twenty economies.

Unemployment is lower than it has been since 1987.

Every region of New Zealand is in positive growth mode.

There was a lengthy radio report the other day about how terrible everything was in the regions.

It said house prices were booming, staff were becoming too expensive - and it was hard to find anyone at all because they all had jobs.

Maybe we should stop!

House prices are soaring in many regions because the regions are strong again.

Wages are higher and rising - and that’s great!

It means there is demand, good jobs, and people are being paid for their skills.

I hope wages rise higher still.

If employers are finding it hard to employ skills, it's because unemployment is low.

These are signs of health.

I’m proud of all of those statistics.

This is a good time to be a New Zealander.

We should be optimistic about New Zealand.

We have more opportunity and cause for hope than we have had in a generation.

That we are steadily becoming more prosperous as a nation is great news.

It has happened in part because the Government is predictable and steady.

Partly it has happened because the government works in partnerships.

Our partnerships help to unlock innovation and for creativity.

And most of all, our prosperity has happened because fast-moving clever businesses are performing superbly on the world stage.

We need innovative and creative companies like this one.

Every business success promises jobs and higher incomes.

Every creative business successfully selling to the world promises a more secure future for the region.

That is why the government is standing alongside small businesses.

It’s why we are working in partnership to grow our businesses.

We need to be sure that the gains of our progress are invested wisely.

We need to invest in our futures.

We need to invest in the skills, health and well being of our children.

We need to support the talent and innovation harnessed by companies like this one.

We need infrastructure that will allow business to flourish.

We need social values and opportunities that allow people to flourish.

And most of all we need hope and confidence.

I recognise the risks the owners of this business have taken to get it to the threshold of growth it stands at today.

And I would like to stress that the government is here as a partner for you in unlocking your future success.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has been formed as a one stop shop to develop business and export markets.

Its there to ensure businesses of all sizes and stages of growth can access services and information they need.

And it’s there to help move out of the way the roadblocks to growth.

Both NZ Trade and Enterprise and Tech NZ have worked alongside Vitapower already.

They have helped it to grow.

They will be there to play their role in the future of the company.

And they will be ready to support the further growth and success of the company.

As we celebrate Vitapower’s success to date, I would like to wish you all the best for the future success of your enterprise.

I know you have ambitious growth plans for the future.

I would like to wish you all the best with those plans.

Congratulations on your success to date.

I can’t open a pet food factory without telling you the story of the duck that walks into a feed store and asks, "Got any duck feed?"

The salesperson tells him, "No, we don't have a market for it so we don't carry it."

The duck says, "Okay," and leaves.

The next day, the duck again walks in to the feed store and asks, "Got any duck feed?" Again the salesman says no and the duck leaves.

Next day, the duck once again walks in, and asks, "Got any duck feed?" The salesman says, "I've told you twice, we don't have duck feed, we've never had duck feed and we never will have duck feed. If you ask me again, I'll nail your feet to the floor." The duck leaves.

The next day, the duck walks in and asks, "Got any nails?"

"No."

"Got any duck feed?"

Ends.