The founders of a gourmet hotdog business and a rubbish collection service are celebrating after being chosen to join a prestigious business retreat later this year.
Dave Lewis, founder of rubbish collection firm junk2go.co.nz is a winner of a place on the nurturechange.co.nz business retreat.
Williamson and Lewis will join hundreds of business leaders and executives at the four day event in November to relax and swap ideas. Speakers who will appear throughout the break will include former All Black coach, Graham Henry, Xero’s Victoria Crone and entrepreneur superstar, Dr Sam Hazledine.
Steve Pirie said: “We were totally impressed with both the quality and the quantity of the entries.
“There were so many good reasons given by many people, and this made it a real challenge to choose just two winners. For us, it was also great to learn about what people hoped to get from attending our Nurture Change business retreat.
“Joanna of Howler Hot Dogs really stood out as a lady who let nothing stop her moving ahead – go Joanna!
“With Dave of Junk2Go, he seemed to really go out of his way to help others and that really resonated with us.
“It was a seriously tough choice picking them out amongst the many impressive entries. We really hope to see many of those who entered be able to attend the retreat. There will be a great group of people attending and we expect some really positive things to come of meeting with like minded business people and individuals.”
Joanna Williamson and husband Brent are producing a “gourmet” version of their popular hotdogs.
Joanna Williamson and her husband Brent set up Howler Hotdogs in 2009 with the aim of producing a high quality and gourmet version of the popular snack. The firm had to withstand the fallout from the Christchurch earthquakes, which caused the loss of 30 per cent of the core business.
“Given that selling or walking would have meant losing the equity accumulated from 20 years work, we adopted a three phase business plan of survive, revive and then thrive, making drastic changes to our lifestyle to make it all hang together, including taking in two rebuild workers as boarders to reduce our drawings to the bare minimum. We had to maximise funds available for the business redevelopment.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have been chosen. After all we have been through, I am really looking forward to being able to relax and be inspired by the amazing line-up of speakers.”
Dave Lewis set up Junk2Go – a 24/7 rubbish collection service – ten years ago after placing a small advertisement and being inundated with enquiries.
He said: “It will be a wonderful way to celebrate a decade in business. Customer service is at the heart of my firm and we try to give back. We arrange a sale of good, unwanted items that people want to dispose of and donate the proceeds to charity.”
– Sunday Star Times
Leave a Reply