A North Shore based Food Company won the BNZ Supreme Business of the Year honour in this year’s Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards (IBA) 2011 at a Gala Black Tie Cocktails, Dinner and Awards Presentation Ceremony held at Sky City Convention Centre on November 14, 2011.
BNZ was the Title Sponsor of IBA 2011, with ten other well-known brands sponsoring individual categories.
They were Pullman Auckland Hotel, Singapore Airlines, Radio Tarana, Kalamazoo Group, Reesby & Company, KPMG, 2degrees Mobile Limited, New Zealand Career College, Patton New Zealand Limited and Triangle Television.
Panworld Travel Mangere sponsored the Cocktails along with Indian Newslink.
Spice N Easy, owned by Sanjay and Vibha Soni, competed in four categories, were finalists in all the four categories and won two trophies, in addition to the Supreme Business Award.
An independent panel of judges, which evaluated all the entries, described Spice N Easy as “a truly inspiring story of an immigrant couple building a business from small beginnings.”
Impressive Progress
The couple have owned ‘North Shore Super Store’ in Birkenhead for over ten years. They launched ‘Spice N Easy Recipe Kits’ in 2008 in response to numerous queries from customers on the ways and means of cooking delicious Indian food.
“The customers had tried many dishes in restaurants and wanted to make these in their homes. This paved the way for the idea of taking all the guesswork out of making great Indian food by providing a foolproof, step-by-step recipe and then packaging all the spices, with a list of the fresh ingredients needed. We took our traditional family recipes and organised “hands on” cooking classes. It was great to receive lots of feedback and to discover which recipes people liked most. We converted the most popular items into kits,” Sanjay and Vibha Soni said.
Prime Minister John Key, Opposition Leader Phil Goff, Indian High Commissioner Retired Admiral Sureesh Mehta, BNZ Chairman of the Board John Waller and BNZ Partners Regional Managing Partner Northern Alan Young were Guests of Honour at this year’s Awards Night.
Celebrating success
Mr Key said the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards have grown in stature and importance over the years and that they enabled all New Zealanders to celebrate the success of Indian businesses.
He later released the Twelfth Anniversary issue of Indian Newslink.
Mr Goff paid tributes to the Indian business community saying that their contributions were significant for the progress of the New Zealand economy.
Mr Mehta said New Zealand and India were reaching higher levels of economic and commercial cooperation and that such Awards were important in recognising and celebrating success of the business community.
More than 700 guests representing a cross-section of businesses including international, national and regional companies were present at the glittering event, which included entertainment and speeches.
Among them were former ACT Leader Dr Don Brash, Member of Parliament representing National and Labour Parties, Cricketer Scott Styris, Chairmen, Chief Executives and top executives of companies and business leaders.
David Beatson of Triangle TV was the Master of Ceremonies. Sponsors of various Awards read out the names of finalists and gave away their trophies to the winners in respective categories.
The Winners
Magsons Hardware Mitre 10 Mega won the ‘Indian Newslink Business Excellence in Retail Award.’
Maharaj Corporation took the ‘Pullman Hotel Business Excellence in Restaurant Trade Award’, beating other finalists including Mani Group (McDonalds West) and Raviz Group.
The ‘Singapore Airlines Business Excellence in Innovation Award’ went to GMP Pharmaceuticals Limited. Spice N Easy, which was the other finalist in this category, won the ‘Radio Tarana Business Excellence in Marketing Award,’ against tough competition from Project Floors Limited and Ranchhod Group.
The ‘Kalamazoo Group Business Excellence in Customer Service Award’ went to
Mani Group (McDonalds West), with Magsons Hardware Mitre 10 Mega and Maharaj Corporation as the other finalists.
The Ranchhod Group won the ‘Reesby & Company Business Excellence in Property Investment Award,’ while the ‘KPMG Business Excellence in Agriculture and Horticulture Award’ went to Branches New Zealand.
Spice N Easy qualified for the ‘2degrees Best Small or Medium Sized Business Award.’ Project Floors Limited, Ranchhod Group and Raviz Group were the other finalists in this category.
Magsons Hardware Mitre 10 Mega took the ‘BNZ Partners Best Large Business Award,’ surpassing GMP Pharmaceuticals and Mani Group (McDonalds West).
The Professional Bar & Restaurant School won for the second year in succession the ‘Business Excellence in Export to India Award,’ sponsored this year by ‘New Zealand Career College.’
There were four contenders for the ‘Patton Limited Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ this year. Abhinav Arora of Nando’s Hamilton was the winner. Other finalists were Ravinder Virdi of Destination New Zealand Immigration Limited (Hamilton), Tejal Ranchhod of Ranchhod Group and Udayjit Singh of Raviz Group (both from Auckland).
The ‘Triangle TV Best Businesswoman of the Year Award’ was another popular category in which Ranjna Patel of East Tamaki Health Care was declared the winner. Hema Singh Parekh of Destination New Zealand Immigration Limited (Hamilton) and Vibha Soni of Spice N Easy were the other finalists.
A list of Finalists and Winners in all the 12 categories with details and pictures of our Awards Night appear in our Awards Special in this issue.
