Forty years after starting his business, self-made man Sir Ken Stevens has won the inaugural Exporters Champion for Exemplary Services to Export Award, and was honoured at the recent Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Auckland Awards 2012.
At the gala dinner a ‘this is your life’ presentation acknowledged Sir Ken’s achievements and ongoing service to New Zealand business. The award, presented on the night by PM John Key, comes from exporters themselves, who know how hard a life of business travel can be on families and how resilient and generous Sir Ken always is.
The Supreme Award and Westpac Exporter of the Year Award (sales over $35 million) went to Temperzone. The QBE Insurance Exporter of the Year, sales under $35 million, is Canary Enterprises, which manufactures value-add dairy and selected non-dairy products.
Innovative umbrella manufacturer Madeblunt was named Emerging Exporter of the Year; Orion Health named Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year; while ENSID Technologies received the highest honour in the commercialization of innovation and Compac Sorting Equipment took out Deal of the Year.
