After five years of publishing our annual celebration of Bay businesses – Year Book 2019-2023, and then last year’s popular 100 People Behind Bay Business 2023 – this year we are bringing to you the best of both publications in a new annual magazine, BoP PLENTY: Business + People 2024. This magazine celebrates businesses and the people behind them across the region.
There is no denying it’s been a tough couple of years and media businesses like ours are at the forefront as a litmus test of general business confidence and the economic activity that flows from that.
Most businesses have had to reinvent themselves in recent times to do things differently and mitigate reduced sales and cash flow constraints. Although it certainly hasn’t been easy, in many ways challenges give birth to innovation – finding ways to do things differently.
It can be a positive, putting your business and people in a different mindset for when the tide starts to turn.
And turning it is.
This has certainly been the case for Bay of Plenty Business News and the various titles we produce. BoP PLENTY magazine has been created to do things differently, like putting a personality profile on the cover for the first time.
Mahé Drysdale’s election as Tauranga’s mayor (cover profile) is a story to be celebrated and I’m excited to see how the mayor and his deputy Jen Scoular and the council team take the city forward and hopefully build on the foundations provided by the former commissioners.
People forget how much progress has been made throughout the region in the last decade.
I’ve been in Aotearoa, New Zealand now for eight years since 2016, seven of those working for Bay of Plenty Business News.
In that time I’ve seen the development of numerous significant projects, including the redevelopment of two airports (Tauranga and Rotorua), construction of two major shopping centres (Bayfair and Tauranga Crossing), opening of University of Waikato’s Tauranga campus, a new HQ for Zespri, creation of Scions’ beautiful timber structure building in Rotorua, the emergence of Rotorua’s world class Wai Ariki Hot Springs and Spa, the construction and opening of New Zealand’s biggest apartment complex outside of Auckland (Elizabeth Towers, Tauranga), the ongoing march of Tauriko Business Estate, including the launch of the huge new GIB factory there, the introduction of NZ’s biggest multi-point EV charging hub at Tauranga Crossing, the rebirth of Whakatāne’s WML paper mill, and countless other significant commercial, residential and industrial projects.
While many more projects have been completed or are currently under construction, they are too numerous to note in this short foreword.
The Bay of Plenty is a dynamic, industry diverse and beautiful region that plays a hugely significant role as part of the ‘Golden Triangle’ – the alliance with the Waikato and Auckland.
It’s an exciting place to be, and who wouldn’t want to live and do business in the powerhouse of the ‘Golden Triangle’, Aotearoa, New Zealand’s economic engine.
BoP PLENTY magazine celebrates businesses, and the people behind them, right across the Bay of Plenty.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the valued business clients and readers who continue to support our titles and the work we do championing them.
Enjoy this issue.
Pete Wales
Publishing and Business Director
