Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Azelis has acquired Chemcolour, a leading supplier of specialty chemicals and food ingredients in Australia and New Zealand, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition strengthens Azelis’ presence in the region and positions it among the top distributors in the two countries. Australia and New Zealand are wealthy countries, rich in natural resources with growing populations, said Azelis’ CEO, Hans Joachim Müller, adding that Chemcolour is a great platform to extend agreements with its existing, global principal suppliers.

Chemcolour Australia has a manufacturing plant in Sydney and application and development laboratories in both Sydney and Melbourne. The New Zealand business has its primary manufacturing facility in Auckland with secondary blending facilities in Christchurch. The distributor also performs contract manufacture for several well known companies.

The transaction is expected to complete over the next months. All 90 of Chemcolour’s employees will transfer to Azelis.

|  An Azaris release  ||  July 28,  2017   |||

As it prepares to launch international services from Apia to Auckland and Sydney, Samoa’s new international airline, Samoa Airways, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Fiji Airways writes Peter Needham for eGlobal Media.

Under the MOU, the airlines will jointly pursue commercial opportunities and partnerships. Fiji Airways will provide initial support – through its established infrastructure in sales, commercial, operations and maintenance – to help launch Samoa Airways’ international services.

“We are happy to play a support role to help reboot Samoa’s international airline”, Fiji Airways’ managing director and chief executive, Andre Viljoen, said.http://travelindustryexpo.com.au/?utm_source=Global%20Travel%20Media&utm_medium=Banners

Samoan Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, said Samoa’s decision to pursue a commercial partnership with Fiji Airways was driven mainly by the critical need to look beyond New Zealand and Australia and open Samoa up to the world. This would be done through Fiji Airways’ long-haul network, which includes direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore into Nadi.

Chairman of Polynesian Airlines, Feesago Siaosi Fepuleai, confirmed that with the signing of the MOU, separate commercial and operations agreements would be negotiated between the two airlines which would form part of the overall Pacific Partnership Alliance Agreement between Samoa Airways and Fiji Airways.

“The MOU we signed today gives both airlines a broad and strategic framework of how the Pacific Partnership will be negotiated and finalised”, Feesago stated.

“Under the MOU, there will be specific routes like Samoa to New Zealand and Australia that will be solely managed by Samoa Airways and other routes where both Airlines will jointly manage through codesharing and interlining.”

| An eGlobal Media release  ||  July 28,  2017   |||

  Indian officers exchange dialogue on GST in NZ

  Silver Fern CEO Dean Hamilton steps down

  E tu seeks answers over Prices Foundry closure

  Directors must face a vote: NZSA

 A tale of two countries: Why this expert thinks NZ should copy UK's climate change policy 

  Persimmon exports to China signed after 12 years of negotiations

  Blenheim bemoans unfair fares as Air NZ fronts up at meeting

  AA calls for petrol companies to be more transparent about premium fuel prices

                      JOB VACANCIES

Ξ  Chief Executive - Farra Engineering Dunedin based - diverse engineering business                 

Today’s announcement of adjustments to the proposed changes in the Essential Skills visa are welcome news to manufacturers who continue to face skill shortages that hold back their businesses from expanding, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA).

NZMEA Chief Executive, Dieter Adam said, “Despite these changes appearing to be coming from pressure largely from low-wage and primary areas of the economy, they do address some concerns manufacturers had.

“With the adjustments to the medium skilled salary threshold, the majority of skill shortages felt in the manufacturing industry will now be covered as medium skilled. This will help alleviate some of the perceived issues with the previous proposals, especially the 12 month stand down period after 3 years in the low skilled category.

“Some issues still remain, such as how setting one rate for all parts of the economy will affect the regions.

“While immigration continues to be discussed, we need to keep in mind the core need to create a system where we get the right type of skilled immigration into New Zealand. We need to address the skill shortages that hold our manufacturers and productive businesses back from expanding and contributing to higher exports and incomes.

“We recognise the growing concerns that the rapid recent increases in overall net migration have given rise to. The vast majority of those increases, however, are in migrant categories other than work visas for medium and highly-skilled workers. Any reduction in those categories would result in stifling growth in the productive high-value industries that employ such workers, including manufacturing.

“Student work visa and lower-skilled migration predominantly supplies workers to the lower-paid and low-value sectors like tourism and related hospitality industries. As Sir Paul Callaghan taught us, we need to steer our economy to where high-value and complex productive growth leads the way – increasing GDP per capita is a core path to prosperity for all in New Zealand. Part of achieving this requires ensuring we have the skills and talent such industries need to grow and innovate, through improving our education system to train New Zealanders and having effective immigration settings.

“Continually relying on growth of low-value industries for our future can actually take us backwards on this pathway to creating wealth, higher incomes and GDP per capita growth. Manufacturing and our high-value productive industries, on the other hand, have the potential to lead the way in this area. ” Said Dieter.

|  An NZMEA release  ||  July 27,  2017   |||

The Productivity Commission has released an issues paper calling for submissions to its inquiry into state sector productivity.

"State sector productivity matters because it tells us how many public services are delivered for the government’s investment in them. That might sound simple, but measuring government productivity is notoriously difficult," says Inquiry Director, Judy Kavanagh.

The Government has asked the Commission to investigate how to improve measurement of state sector productivity in the health, education, justice and social development sectors.

Ms Kavanagh says the inquiry process will also investigate what capability, culture and systems are necessary to support government agencies to better measure, understand and improve productivity.

"We know that performance measurement frameworks exist across all core agencies. The Commission is interested in what is currently in place, what works well, and what measures can be used to improve productivity and efficiency."

Ms Kavanagh says the success of the inquiry will rely on the input, knowledge and advice of the sectors concerned. "This issues paper raises a number of technical questions about measuring productivity in core public services. We’re looking for submissions from anyone with an interest in how public sector productivity is measured, and how productivity improvement can be supported."

The issues paper is now available at www.productivity.govt.nz and anyone interested in the topic can subscribe to receive regular updates. Submissions on the inquiry are due by 8 September 2017. The Productivity Commission’s final report to the Government is due on 30 August 2018.

For further information see the state sector productivity inquiry page, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Robyn Sadlier on 04 903 5167.

|  A Productivity Commission release  ||  July 27,  2017   |||

Corrections Minister Louise Upston is impressed at the results being achieved by the Department’s Employer Partnerships initiatives and is looking forward to them continuing to make a positive difference to people’s lives.

“Finding steady employment for offenders when they leave prison is a critical step to helping these people turn their lives around. The work Corrections has been doing with offenders and potential employers in this area is very promising,” says Ms Upston.

“The decision to recruit eight Offender Recruitment Consultants nationwide has proved particularly successful. Since they began making placements in November, 482 offenders have successfully moved into employment.”

The Employer Partnerships initiatives are designed to support offenders into employment with opportunities provided both inside and outside prison.

Offenders can obtain qualifications through education and training courses offered whilst in prison and this provides them with the first step towards employment when they are released.

Corrections then works with potential employers to match prisoners with positions relevant to their experience and qualifications. So far 125 employers have signed MOUs (Memorandums of Understanding) with the Department.

“We have hosted three successful Employer’s breakfasts already this year in Hamilton, Christchurch and Wellington. The feedback from employers has been positive and has enabled us to engage, and build relationships, with employers, informing them of the opportunities available by working with Corrections.”

“There is a natural hesitancy for employers to take on offenders but the work that is being undertaken by Corrections is helping to break down those perceptions and is delivering work ready employees,” says Ms Upston.

Corrections is developing an enhanced strategy to build on the early success of the programme. This includes both a national and regional focus and an initiative to encourage current partners to bring a ‘friend’ to future events to understand the work being done by Corrections in industry, education and training.

|  A Beehive release  ||  July 27,  2017   |||