Updated Story
Praneeta Mahajan
Hamilton, July 25, 2023
Innovation has always been at the forefront of Fieldays, and The Fieldays Innovation Awards, which started in 1968, as the first competition of its kind in New Zealand, has now become the platform for turning ideas of all shapes and sizes into marketable products to benefit the primary industry.
The Awards open up the possibility of inventors entering different categories each year to showcase any recent progress or advancements made in the project. Despite the 2022 Awards being held just six months ago, entrants were keen to showcase their progress and fresh thinking.
This year’s Awards again paid tribute to the youth with the Young Innovator of the Year Award going to an eager group of high school students at St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton, for their Capra Skin Goats Milk lip balm. The group comprising Lucy O’Meeghan, Emma Lobb, Mackenzie Lenton and Lochie Mouat, are in year 13, taking Agribusiness as a subject.
Start of a dream
The students identified a need and formulated steps and iterations to develop a final product that could make a real difference to its target market.
They named their brand Capra Skin, drawing inspiration from the Latin word Capra meaning goat, which also doubles as an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.
A representative from the group explained, “We want our customers to feel exceptional when using our product. We envision our product’s story expanding beyond just lip balm and encompassing other skincare items in the future.”
Chris Foot, the Agribusiness teacher at St. Paul’s Collegiate, could not be happier with the performance of the students who pitched their ideas at the Fieldays Innovation Hub.
“They did well and put up convincing arguments under very difficult and nerve-wracking conditions. Their ideas were innovative, original, and clever. we are extremely proud of them.”
The judges were equally impressed, praising the exceptional quality of the presentations and highlighting the professionalism demonstrated by the young participants.
Perfect research insights
During a conversation with Indian Newslink, members of the team explained the product with much passion and said, “Capra Skin is our business that has formulated a goat’s milk lip balm. As a group, we realised that goat’s milk has so many natural benefits including Vitamin A, fatty acids and moisturising agents alongside our other main ingredients of kawakawa oil and bee venom which has cell regeneration qualities.”
“As part of our research and development of the product, we recognised that many teenagers suffer from acne and use medication, particularly Acutane, to help heal this. However, a huge side effect of this acne medication is the drying out and cracking of the lips. We looked on the current lip balm market and could not find a lip balm that specifically treated dry and cracked lips.”
The team highlighted that “We value our New Zealand heritage and wanting to keep our product as local as possible, we found that the Kawakawa oil from a native would provide the necessary ingredient for the drying and cracked lips. Our third main ingredient of bee venom is really great for the cell regeneration of the lips.”
When asked about their plans after winning the prestigious award, they were confident in their way forward as a brand and as a business.
“We would not want to limit our business to only producing lip balm, as we see the story behind our product being able to extend beyond just lip balm and into other skin products in the future. We are really looking forward to continuing and expanding our business and would be happy to talk to any potential investors or interested parties.”
Praneeta Mahajan is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Hamilton.
