Venkat Raman
Competition was rife in many of the categories of the Eleventh Annual Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards, bringing the best among businesses owned, operated, managed and franchised by people of Indian Origin.
Many of them were identified as finalists and honoured as winners at the Awards Ceremony held on Monday, November 26, 2018 at SkyCity Convention Centre.
Jackie Clarke was the Master of Ceremonies.
Guests of Honour
Among the Guests of Honour at the gala Black Tie Event were Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, Export Growth and Trade Minister David Parker, Police Minister Stuart Nash, Ethnic Communities Minister Jenny Salesa, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, Indian High Commissioner Sanjeev Kohli, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Fiji Jonathan Curr, Consul General and Trade Commissioner Australia and New Zealand of Fiji based in Sydney.
Almost 1000 people including government officials, top executives of public and private sector undertakings, businesspersons and professionals attended the event.
Ambika Krishnamoorthy presented a Bharata Natyam item as an invocatory number, while Ratna Venkat choreographed and performed a dance item for ‘God is Good,’ sung by Jeffery Nathan, both of who later presented a fusion number.
Awards Sponsors and Categories
The Rainbow Corner Group of Companies was the Title Sponsor and Sponsor of the Supreme Business of the Year, while the Consulate General of Fiji and Trade Commission of Australia and New Zealand (based in Sydney) was the Major Support Sponsor.
Among our individual categories and their respective Sponsors were Business Excellence in Retail Trade (Indian Newslink), Business Excellence in Innovation Singapore Airlines), Business Excellence in Marketing (Radio Tarana), Business Excellence in Customer Service (Mercury Printz), Best Employer of Choice (Link2 Services Limited), Business Excellence in Health & Safety (Rainbow Corner Group of Companies), Best Small Business (PIC Insurance Brokers), Best Medium Sized Business (2degrees Mobile Limited), Best Large Business (Hotel Grand Windsor of the Charles Pandey Group of Hotels), Business Excellence in International Business with India (Manukau Institute of Technology), Best Accountant of the Year (SmartPayroll), Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Best Financial Advisor (Mortgage) of the Year (Oaks Property Management), Best Financial Advisor (Insurance) of the Year (AIA New Zealand) and Best Businesswoman of the Year (Alexandra Park).
Winners in each of these categories were entered into the Supreme Business of the Year sponsored by the Rainbow Corner Group of Companies.
Winners and Finalists
Legal Associates was the Winner of the Supreme Business of the Year Award.
Seven other companies were finalists for the Supreme Business Award 2018. They were
Focus Marketing, Loan Market Waitakere, West City Auto Group, STAAH, Immigration Advice Limited, Forever Shine Beauty Therapy and Brisk Insurance.
The following were the winners in individual categories:
- Forever Shine Beauty Therapy: Business Excellence in Retail Trade
- Business Excellence in Innovation: STAAH
(Finalists: Ecobags New Zealand, Legal Associates, Brisk Insurance and Forever Shine Beauty Therapy)
Ecobags received special commendation of the independent panel of judges.
- Business Excellence in Marketing: Legal Associates Limited
(Finalists: Focus Marketing, Loan Market Waitakere, STAAH)
- Business Excellence in Customer Service: Loan Market Waitakere
(Finalists: Legal Associates, Forever Shine Beauty Therapy, STAAH, R Jay Financial Services, Brisk Insurance)
- Best Employer of Choice: Focus Marketing Limited
(Finalist: R Jay Financial Services)
- Best Small Business: Brisk Insurance
(Finalists: R Jay Financial Services and Vision Sales & Marketing)
- Best Medium-Sized Business: Immigration Service (NZ) Limited
- Best Large Business: Focus Marketing Limited
- Business Excellence in Health & Safety: West City Auto Group
- Business Excellence in International Trade with India: Independent Advisory Services – Ascent Group
- Best Accountant of the Year: Ragavan Rengachariar-United Industries Limited
- Best Financial Advisor (Mortgage) of the Year: Satyan Mehra-iConsult-Finance & Risk (Finalist: Raman Chouhan-R Jay Financial Services)
- Best Financial Advisor (Insurance) of the Year: R J Financial Services
- Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Winner: Haseeb Ashraf- Legal Associates
(Finalists: Raman Chauhan – R Jay Financial Services; Kiran Arul – Focus Marketing)
- Best Businesswoman of the Year: Winner: Rachana Dave – Loan Market Waitakere
(Finalist: Shyama Sharma – Legal Associates)
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Photo Caption:
- Jackie Clarke, our Master of Ceremonies was her best in entertaining
- Ambika Krishnamoorthy presenting a Bharata Natyam dance
- Ratna Venkat and Jeffery Nathan with ‘God is Good’ Merge the two pictures
- A Section of the audience
- Our Dignitaries on stage-Zarak Khan, Jonathan Curr, Sanjiv Kohli, Phil Goff, Stuart Nash, Jacinda Ardern, Simon Bridges, Jenny Salesa, Carmel Sepuloni, Grant Robertson and David Parker
(Pictures for Indian Newslink by Narendra Bedekar)
