The 2022 Katikati and Waihi Beach Community Business Award ceremony celebrated the best of the community on Saturday 3rd September at the Katikati Memorial Hall with over 150 people in attendance to recognise the finalists and winners in the various award categories.
The two Western Bay of Plenty townships combine forces biennially to highlight outstanding locals, organisations and businesses in the region. Waihi Beach strives to be the best seaside village in New Zealand and Katikati is overflowing with the arts and recognised as the Avocado Capital of New Zealand.
Voting for the ten People’s Choice Award categories opened in early July, along with judging for the Business Excellence and Environmental and Sustainable Excellence Judged Awards. The community voted enthusiastically this year says Vicki Lambert of Waihi Beach Community Events & Promotions, joint organisers of the event with Katch Katikati. “We received more votes in the first week of voting in 2022 than the entire number of votes received for the 2020 awards.”
The awards ceremony was a spectacular event with a real community flavour. “It’s been a long, tough two years and we really wanted the awards ceremony to be a night to remember!”, says Vicki. The Katikati Memorial Hall was transformed into a magical space by event organisers and included foliage beautifully crafted by the Katikati Floral Art Group. Attendees enjoyed music from the Auckland based 2 Fold duo, beverages from the Cider Factorie and catering from Katikati College. “The collaboration with the college gave credits to the students while also giving financial support to the school,” says Vicki. “Guests enjoyed a delicious array of canapes, followed by a Tuscan style dinner and dessert; all coordinated and served by Katikati students and overseen by Karyn Williams, Katikati College Technology/Hospitality Teacher.”
MC Jolene James from The Breeze kicked off the evening reminding the audience of the theme of the awards – “Resilience” – and how businesses and the community have really supported each other throughout covid. “A tremendous amount of passionate work goes in behind the scenes of all our wonderful communities and business organisations. These awards are a chance to recognise those important and hard working groups and individuals. The theme this year has been resilience, and these two communities have shown it in bucket loads.”
The Business Excellence Award and the Environmental and Sustainable Excellence Award were judged by a panel including James Denyer, Peter Hughes-Hallett and Don Mossop, who all have backgrounds in corporate and public service organisations. “Celebrating business excellence is vitally important to the well-being of communities – it encourages innovation, and on-going improvement, and recognises the passion of the owners and the importance of local businesses as employers,” says Don. “The standard of entries in this year’s awards was extraordinarily high and the finalists in each category were incredibly difficult to separate.
“A number of businesses have demonstrated remarkable resilience to bounce back quickly from the difficult business environment of the past two years. This resilience was attributable to the passion and drive of the owners, and their willingness to adopt business management tools to assist their decision-making.”
BeeNZ from Katikati took out the winner of the Business Excellence Award with their key strengths being the family values-based culture of the business; that they are a living wage employer, and their recent B Corp certification.
Surf Shack Eatery from Waihi Beach was winner of the Environmental and Sustainable Excellence Award with their unrivalled commitment to sustainable practices throughout their business including their carbon neutral status.
Ten People’s Choice awards were presented ranging from individual and community volunteers, sports and arts to business retail, service and tourism, with each award supported by a local business sponsor.
Both Katch Katikati and Waihi Beach Events and Promotions thank sponsors for their support of the successful event which has received overwhelming positive feedback from the community.
The winners of each award are:
JUDGED AWARD CATEGORIES
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE
Winner: BeeNZ
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABILITY EXCELLENCE
Winner: Surf Shack Eatery
PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNERS
SPORTS COACH OF THE YEAR
Winner: Lance Campbell
SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: Waka Ama Crew – Whaitere Gold
SERVICE BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: The Pet Place
HOSPITALITY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Common Ground Cafe
RETAIL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Beach Butchery
TOURISM BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Athenree Hot Springs and Holiday Park
VOLUNTEER ORGANISATION OF THE YEAR
Winner: Waipuna Hospice
VOLUNTEER INDIVIDUAL
Winner: Michael Meade
BEST ARTS INDIVIDUAL:
Winner: Jess Ellis
BEST SPORTS INDIVIDUAL
Winner: Gemma Groenewald
