New Zealand owned and operated wall covering specialist Resene is the first winner of the Buy New Zealand Made campaign’s brand new Heroes Award.
The award comes in Resene’s 70th birthday year and from humble beginnings in the Wellington garage of founder Ted Nightingale the company has gone from strength to strength, with its factory just a stone’s throw away from the original and a highly successful product range. Nick Nightingale – Ted’s grandson – runs the business today and it remains 100% New Zealand owned.
The Buy New Zealand Made campaign’s new 'Heroes' programme is designed to identify companies who not only do a fantastic job promoting their NZ Made status but who have also excelled in other key commercial areas. During the past year, amongst a huge array of notable successes and achievements, Resene has secured its highest share ever of the domestic New Zealand market place for paint and wallpaper.
It is more active in the community than ever before, with notable success in its Hunger for Colour project with The Salvation Army where customers could swap a can of food for a Resene testpot. This resulted in more than 25,000 cans of food being donated, a remarkable achievement.
Resene has long been recognised as a leader in environmentally friendly practice in New Zealand having secured a Green Ribbon Award back in 2010 from the Ministry of the Environment and also won Sustainable Business of the Year in the same year. The values and processes that secured these awards remain as strong and important to the company today as they did six years ago. It also has an enviable reputation for staff retention and development.
Karen Warman, Resene’s Marketing Manager, explained: “Resene is very proud to call New Zealand our home and are delighted to have been chosen as Buy NZ Made’s first hero. Our paints and colours are designed and made right here and have been since we started 70 years ago.
“We want to thank our staff for their effort, our huge supportive network of customers who support us, not only with their purchases but also with their feedback so we can grow and improve, and our suppliers that help us provide all the quality products and services we offer. We wouldn’t be here without them.”
As the inaugural winner of the Heroes Award, Resene receive a certificate, promotion on the Buy NZ Made website, promotion in target media, Hero artwork which they can use in their own marketing, a social media advertising voucher worth $100 to be used on the Buy NZ Made social media channels and automatic entry into the annual competition where they and 11 other monthly winners will be voted on by the public for the Ultimate Hero Award.
If they win that, they will receive a trophy and certificate, artwork displaying their ultimate hero status and an advertorial in a magazine of their choice (from a selection of approved magazines) that includes information about their award, Buy NZ Made and other content of their choice.
Buy NZ Made Manager Trina Snow was full of praise for the inaugural Hero Award winners, commenting: “The Hero Awards really ask companies of any shape and size that are our members to take a good look at themselves in some key areas and ask how well they are doing in those areas. Resene excelled in every area of our demanding criteria, which look across many aspects of the business. Theirs is a remarkable Kiwi success story and they are worthy winners of our first Hero Award.”
