Old Boys prominent at Business Excellence Awards

22/11/2008

Patron of the Otago Boys’ High School Foundation Graeme Marsh (1947-51) was last night named as the winner of The City of Dunedin Mayor’s award for business personality at the Westpac Otago Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.

The award honoured a long and distinguished career in a myriad of southern businesses.

Business Personality of the Year Graeme Marsh

The award for business personality recognised not only Graeme’s business achievements but also his contribution to the wider community.

He began as an accountant with Sinclair and Haig and later became a partner, he had early investments in ice cream businesses, bought Cooke Howlison Motors, took a controlling interest in J and A P Scott which became Scott Technology.

That was followed by the purchase of Blackwell Motors in Christchurch, then he took a controlling interest in John Edmond and was managing director and chairman of rope manufacturer Donaghys. Many of the companies, spanning from the late 1960s to late 1980s, were merged or bought out, while Scott Technology was floated in 1987.

Graeme has also served on the University of Otago council, as a director on the Dunedin City Council’s subsidiary holding company and Mercy Hospital, and started the Cooke Howlison Community Trust while overseeing private family companies Oakwood Securities and Oakwood Properties.

In 1995, he was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and was also named Deloittes management executive of the year. In December last year, he formally stepped down as chairman of listed company Scott Technology following a marathon 32 years as its chairman, understood to be one of the longest terms of any company in the country. He was iInducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in 1998.

Scott Technology and Silver Fern Farms joint venture company Robotic Technologies Ltd last night won the Otago Chamber of Commerce’s business research and innovation award.

Scott had made its mark manufacturing and exporting production lines from its Christchurch site and in Dunedin concentrates on the research and development into its meat processing robotics joint venture, having recently relocated to a new $3 million purpose-built site in Kaikorai Valley.

There is a strong Otago Boys’ link with Scott Technology – Graham Batts (1951-56) is a Director, Stuart McLauchlan (1971-75) is the Board Chairman, Greg Chiles (1983-87) is the Chief Financial Officer, Mark Jackson (1986-88) is the Finance Manager, and Graeme Findlay (1995-99) can be found in the Dunedin workshop.

Allan Dippie - Supreme Business Excellence Award

Allan Dippie, (1978-81), managing director of the Nichols Garden Group, accepted the night’s premier accolade – the Supreme Business Excellence award.

Nichols is one of Otago’s oldest companies and now boasts an annual turnover of several million dollars with an involvement in a variety of endeavours.

Nichols Garden Centre been transformed during the last three decades with its growth characterised by a willingness and ability to adapt and change and seek new opportunities. One particular project, which was described as a ‘‘stand-out contribution to the local economy as well as to the cultural fabric of Otago’’ – the Otago Museum’s hugely popular $1.2 million tropical forest and butterfly attraction, and which has vastly exceeded visitor numbers and revenue expectations was highlighted at the awards dinner.

A portion of the commendation read: “The result of transforming ideas through creative skills and sheer determination ensured a stunning tropical rainforest at the museum that has exceeded all expectations and which is a living advertisement of the company as thousands visit what is becoming one of Dunedin’s most popular attraction.”