September 21, 2025 • 32 mins
In this week's Business Panel, Nick was joined by sixth generation Ohariu Valley farmer Hamish Best - who also owns Conscious Valley meat - alongside NZCIS Performance Institute general manager Jamie Tout.
They discussed how their respective businesses have been performing this year, and talked over a number of issues such as the recent GDP result, how to get Wellington thriving for business and whether the Local Body Elections have an impact on their companies.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Every two Mondays every fortnight we do a business panel
where we invite a couple of wellingtoned Wellingtonian business people
into the studio and we talk business. We talk about
what's going really well, what's not going so well and
what can we do to make our great city, our
great area better. Sixth generation oh Harrier Valley farmer and
(00:37):
Conscious Valley meat owner Hamish Best. Good morning, AMers, I'm great. Thanks.
How is the farm this morning? What times you get up?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Actually? With the rain on the roof, I had a
good with the rain on the roof. I had a
good sleep and got up probably about half our six
but lay in bed listening to the beautiful rain.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Isn't it fantastic? Have you got your farming boots on?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I can't see I've got my town boots on today.
Look like a city slicker today.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'll tell you why I made that comment. In a
couple of minutes in z Sea Performance Institute director Jamie
taut Hew. You going, Jamie Salubrius, Nick, Why are you leaving?
Why are you going? It's been a hell of a journey.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
That's to say, the least hell of a journey. Look,
it's coming up ten years. It'll be sort of February
March next year. I would have come across Mail Gillies
and there's a story to that as well, maybe for
later time. But yeah, ten years since the vision was
conceived by Malan, three years start of September since it's open,
so it's definitely moved from the I guess the design
and scoping stage. It's been delivered three years ago and
(01:37):
now it's time for that baby to walk and it yeah,
heading off.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So is that kind of what the reason? You know,
it was your dream to build this an amazing facility
and those people that have not seen it, I have
not heard about it. You're living under a rock. This
is a world class and I don't say that lightly.
A world class training facility more than a training facility.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Yeah, it is definitely more than the training facility. And
I think, yeah, credit to Melan keV just for having
that vision ten years ago and trusting me to sort
of getting involved with that scope and design. But today
we try and take the high performance mindset. It's not
just about sport. I think it's something we'll probably talk
about today. It's sort of that agglomeration of different activity
out there now that really makes it a high performance campus.
Whether that's having conferencing out there, whether it's last week
(02:23):
we've had we've had master plumbers on site, we've got
police on site, We've got different activity. But it's a
high performance mindset of how you do things better.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Talking about a high performance farm. I got a hell
of a fright when I was watching Country Calendar, one
of my must go to programs on a Sunday night,
and I saw the little arrow come in and go
to Wellington. I said, farm in Wellington. Got very interested then, Hamish,
(02:51):
I found out that you were this young farmer and
it was your dad's farm. Didn't talk to you, They
didn't have your dad on the show very much. I
was quite kind of quite interested in him as well.
Tell us about your farm because it's very hilly.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, the farmer is incredibly steep. There's a reason us
best to pretty lean and mean. We're crawling all over
those hills all week long. But yeah, the farm's been Dad,
Mum and dad bought the farm about thirty three odd
years ago. Dad grew up in the valley, and yeah,
all of the generations leading back to George coming off
(03:26):
a boat basically grew up there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So how amazing to have be a farmer and live
fifteen minutes ten minutes away from the capital city. I mean,
it's kind of weird. That's why it got me interested.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, it's very unique to be able to come into
town like I did this morning for a flat white
and some breakfast just before cruising in here. It's pretty unique.
Only takes if the traffic's not built up, it takes
fifteen minutes. So yeah, we're very lucky to live so
close to such a wonderful city but also so remote
that you could think you're in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Now I've read a bit about it too, and I
watched the program and the sea air comes across it
makes them meat differently, When did you decide that you
were actually going to be your own butcher as well
and do all your whole own sort of meat product
as well.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
When I was living in Melbourne and I was living
over there during COVID, there was my favorite little butcher there.
It was quite pricey, but they still had queues as
a lot like down the streets during COVID there and
you'd walk through the supermarket and you'd see that in
the middle of one of I guess Melbourne's most vegetarian
(04:34):
type suburbs, the meat trendy suburbs, trendy suburbs. The meat
shelves were all empty, and so I knew that there
was like there was a market for good, high quality
meat and so and I couldn't quite get the taste
of home anywhere else, and so I just thought it
was a bit of nostalgia. But I came straight back
and again tasted the lamb, and I thought, yeah, we've
(04:56):
got a product here that we want to share with Wellingtonians.
We don't want to basically, we don't want to leave
the farm gate and then never see it again.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, how much of your product goes to just into
your own retail stuff and how much goes outside of that.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
At the moment, one hundred percent of our beef is
coming into the city and then we're sitting at about
forty to fifty percent of our lamb. But as we
as the business grows, that's going to be one hundred
wow hopefully, And it's.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Only available at the market and down in Shafer's Marine Market.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yep, it's only available in Wellington at the markets every Sunday.
We have an online store for delivering to Wellingtonians and
then we're in a few restaurants dotted around the city
and where it's also stocked in more Wilson's as well
if you need it during the week.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Wow, fantastic, Jamie. You're nodding your head and getting excited there.
You're thinking of, you know, thinking you're going to have
some of that meat, aren't.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
You, mate.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Absolutely. Look, I'm from Scone one Hunter Valley, That's where
I come across here in ninety ninety seven. But we're
talking just before we come on air about the good
old black Angus and how I enjoyed coming from a
rural background and really looking forward to having some of
my Scone Nights come over. I don't have you call
them scon Knights, they're from Scone, but we'll go with
that coming over in a couple of weeks time. But
now you've put it on my radar, mate, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Okay, Jamie. You've had the all blacks there, You've had
the whole sorts of sports teams out there. Tell us
how the year has gone so far?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I was reflecting on that actually, Nick, because I think
maybe twelve months ago we sat here and we're talking
about some of the challenges in Wellington. We talked about
the potential of some of these teams coming out and
certainly the likes of Wrexham was a really good example.
When they hit town, things happened, the town felt vibrant.
The work that Wellington and z and Tourist New Zealand
did around so the promotion and the cool things they
did at boom Rock and then down in Queenstown just superb.
(06:42):
And that energy that they bring. It's good for the
campus and it's good for Wellington, but more over it's
good for New Zealand. So that's been pretty cool. We've
had the doubleheader Black Ferns and All Blacks both playing
in Wellington together and again having the athletes around really
lifted the vibe. And then more recently and despite the result,
having the All Blacks out of the campus is another
(07:02):
really good thing. And the commercial tenants out there, the
other government departments who see the All Blacks walking around,
it's it's nice. It just brings energy commercially.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
How's it working? I mean, is that one hell of
an investment. Let's we're talking a massive investment.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, huge.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So is it commercially going to work out for them?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Well, I think one of the things that they've done
well is it's a mitigation or risk by having a
lot of diverse revenue streams. So I think going back
to its core, it's commercial real estate and there's twenty
odd thousand square mete as a commercial real estate that
Malcolm's filling up with government tenants and the like, and
that helps. It's as you know, one of the biggest
hotels in the in the North Island. That's four hundred
(07:44):
beds of accommodation and going.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Out like private units and connections or is that actually
a hotel?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, look it's yeah, booking dot com jump on, have
a look at the village. It's they're cool apartments and
when the all Blacks are there they fill them up.
But likewise, conferences are available for generally do.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
All black stay out there?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
They do? Oh yeah, and Wrexham State out there and
like talking to the coaches, they like it because it's
less stress. You're not getting on off buses, you can
make more efficiency out of your day. But yeah, I
think the team out there are really seeing that conference
market like it as well because they get access to
some of the facility. The food is outstanding, like the
(08:19):
guys at Star Hospital out there do a fantastic job
with Andy the chef and team. But going back to
your question, mate, look, I think yeah, the commercial real estate,
having the accommodation there, having the food and beverage there,
and the sports facility. Look, the sports facility is a
sexy part and it's great to have that there, but
it wouldn't work in isolation. You need that other activity
(08:40):
going on.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So long term is it going to work out for them?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I think what they've seen this year already is if
you compare and Belinda was talking the other day see
at nzcis about the opency rates at the campus have
been higher than in Wellington Central, and I think it's
because it has those points of difference. So I think
they walk into the future optimistically. I think it's probably
taken a bit longer to get going than you would like,
but that's on the back of COVID, it's on the
(09:05):
back of an economic downturn and the fact you've got
those different areas of revenues coming in. I think that's
going to be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So Hamish back to you, what are the challenges of
farming so close to a city all the you know,
no other farmers apart from you there.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, we do have a little community. There's about five,
five or six other farms the same size of it
as us in the valley. But yeah, you're right, it
is tough. We are away from most rural infrastructure, sale yards,
rual supply stores. We are very lucky to have the
Taylor Prestons down the Noonger Gorge. That's a that's a
big asset.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That does all your butchering for you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yep, that's where the abatire is and then it goes
to Preston's out in Grenada. They do all the cutting
and then it comes back to us for I guess distribution.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And so you do all the distribution yourself, all the marketing,
all the sales, everything's all done through your through a farm. Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Unique and New Zealand there's a few more businesses like
that popping up. And it was amazing after the Country
Calendar show how many people outside of Wellington really wanted
to get in touch for the meat and we had
to sort of push them away. Or push them in
directions of similar businesses in the Hawk's Bay or up
in Auckland. So it is happening more and more.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, what is the downside of the economy as it
is at the moment where people are watching what they spend.
We are in a really tough time. Your meat would be,
because of its quality and everything else, be a bit
more expensive.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yep, yep. It's probably at the top of the price
bracket for meat. But we encourage people. Red meat is
a luxury item and if you're going to spend money
on some red meat, it might as well be something
that's that the retailer or the person selling it to
you will stand by and I guess our quality is
never compromised and you'll always have a positive eating experience.
(10:55):
So the downturn will affect what people spend on red meat,
but it's also an item that is nutritious and tasty.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We have home Best Jamie Taunt in the studio. We
are the business panel and we're having a bit of
a chat about business stuff. Right, we know all about
them now economic outlook, Jamie, let's start with you. I mean,
the GBD quarter figures were down zero point nine. The
worst than any economists predicted. I mean, does that have
(11:27):
any relativity whatsoever to somebody running a big business. Does
it Do we look at it and go while we're
in trouble now or is it just something that's in
the back of our mind.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I would Yeah, it wasn't unexpected necessarily, it's probably the
depth of it was right. But I think most people
are out there still planning that. It is a pretty
tough environment, so they probably had thought about this, and
we're planning for it. Steve Henson once said, and I've
got to remind myself that worry is a wasted in motion.
And I think you just need to get on and
be positive. And I think hearing Hamish some of the
stuff that's the cool stuff that's going on there, just
(11:59):
need to get on with it. And I'd love to
introduce you make the feel going out at brute Own Market,
so it's an another good avenue for you to get
out there amongst that. Yeah, it is what it is,
and unfortunately that that data is a little bit old, right,
so sort of that that snake's tail that happens. Now,
we'll wait and see what happens. But ideally you wouldn't
be playing the game. You'd love to play the game
and know the result. We don't. We find out well
(12:21):
after so people are.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Changed the way you run. You does it? You look
at it and go, oh shit, those GBD fingers came out?
What do we do? What do we do?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
It wasn't a dramatic surprise, right, Yeah, it's sort of
people have been planning and trying to be agile as
it is already. And again you look at the businesses
that are doing well. They are diversifying their essay, are
mitigating some of their expenditure through trying it, trying other things.
So yeah, it'd be nice to have that that real
time information, but I don't think it changes things. Nick.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did it change anything for you? How much did you
actually sit down and think, us, look, this is not
the outlooks not as good as what I thought it was.
Do I need to make any changes? Did you actually
even have the conversation?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Well, I sort of thought that those figures were what
they were. It's the court of it's been and it's
not the couarter of that's in front of us. And
I think if you worry too much about how bad
it's been, you'll you'll be sort of being stuck in
a rut, whereas if you look forward to what's coming,
we've got a spring and in summer ahead of us.
(13:19):
You know the place is going to be starting to
pick up again as tourists roll back into New Zealand
for the summer. You look at agriculture across New Zealand
and it's it's thriving at the moment. And as far
as the GDP figure goes, yep, there was a bit
of a speed bump, not quite as not not as
it was a lot bigger than what was expected. But
again we've just got to be positive and move forward.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You're an exciting time in your business. You're doing really
well and it's moving and you're looking you're appealing to
sort of an upmarket, you know, segment of the community.
They don't sort of seem to care as much, do they.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Well, we have noticed that, yeah, probably the average spend
per transaction has dropped, but again we're only a year
and a half old, so we probably don't have enough
data to look at it. But a lot of the
restaurants that we're supplying this time last year was incredibly
tough and if we look at twelve months on. The
(14:16):
people that we've been supplying, their orders have been slightly
bigger and they're feeling a little bit more positive about
what's happening. You've got wow coming to Wellington. I feel
like if you're out on the streets there's more of
a buzz around.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Right and Apperhart Jamie, what does it feel like out there?
Does it feel like that it is coming right? I mean,
I hate that those terms people are using green shoots,
but does it feel like it's coming right?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I think optimistically We've got some really awesome events happening
out of the campus through quarter one of next year,
and the team out there have done a great job
securing the men's Asia Pacific Lacross tournament, eight international teams
coming in. There's a large women's golf amateur event happening
in conjunction with Royal Wellington. So the team across there,
Dylan Linstrom and the team have done really well to
secure that. There's men's Touch nationals coming into town and
(15:02):
they're the things that are happening. Is that of January
February March of next year, a commune to.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
You that you're amongst you know when you walk down town,
does it feel like you just feel like it's lifting.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I think if and again I'll talk about Breuetown Markets.
You walk out there on a Sunday, it's it's humming,
it's buzzing, and people got smiles on their faces and
they enjoy being there. And again, Upper Hearts had a
lot of cool activity in this last decade with Lane
Street Studios, with Breuetown, with NZ's cis obviously the recent
announcement out there with the paper moving out. So there's
lots of cool things happening, mate, And I think the
(15:32):
double tracking has helped having the better public transport. I think, yeah,
diversification and having good transport out in the Upper Hut
certainly makes a big difference to it keeping the momentum,
and it has shown it's above the national average in
terms of growth for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And your market too. I mean, that's my Sunday go
to the weathers, right, how much difference does it actually
make when the weather's not okay, when it's blowing and
jail and raining.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, it's chalk and cheese. You can stand there on
a even a blustery daylight yesterday and you can just
tell the people density out in front of you is
significantly lower. And I mean no one likes going out
there battling a norwester that blows your shopping bags out
of your hands. So yeah, the weather has a bit
of an effect.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Doesn't have an effect on their mindset. Was spending too.
They go in there and rush and grab what they
need and go.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
We're different. We definitely sell different products during the year,
but the weather on the day not so much. I
think people go there with their shopping list and they
buy what they.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
How long have you been there.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
It'll be two years in November.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So have you noticed it getting better? Yep, yep, but
then considerably or just a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It's hard for us because obviously products are going so
as we gain and popularity and people find out about us,
then we get busier. So we believe that it's busier,
but they could be.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
They're talking. Do you know that the stallholders stopped? Stallholders
all talk to each other.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
They're all I mean, like, for example, this weekend, it
was a bit down because of that horrible wind, but
then the week the two weeks before everyone was having
a great time.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, I mean it is completely chalk and cheese. You're right,
let's get some quick fire stuff. Let's get some moving here,
Hamish coming to you first, what's the single biggest challenge
or pressure your business is facing at the moment.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
On the farming front, it was probably the increase in
inflation over the last three years with a deep downturn
and pricing the last three years, it's just been costs up,
prices received down. That was the biggest challenge moving forward.
The biggest challenge for us, I guess is getting growing
(17:34):
our conscious valley business and employing staff because we're now
at a size where we probably need to start thinking
about staffing and where we place those people and who
we get.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Do you think you're going to full retail? Do you
think that's something you look at maybe you know on
the farm or something.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, it's always been a bit of a bit of
a dream to have a to have a shop, a
farm shop. I don't know whether it would be better
suited on the farm or out in the suburbs somewhere,
because it's still even though it's for me it's a
short drive.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
A feature out to the farm where you meet it'd
be like you're like a you know, Disneyland and Wellington.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, true, maybe we'll get a roller coaster going as well.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I was kidd Jamie, tell me who's got a bigger
impact on your business? Central or local government?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Oh, Nick hadn't foresaw that one coming, but I would
probably say central government. Local has been very supportive and
I think we've seen awesome examples recently where Wellington and
Hut City and Upper Heart are actually putting their name
in the hat to tender collectively for events, So that
level of collaboration is awesome. I think the government recent
(18:39):
recent announcement about supporting more events coming into New Zealand
is fantastic. I think ensuring that they know that we
have got a proper high performance venue here that can
cater for sports teams and other events is something we
need to get the word out there. I think it's
one of the New Zealand's best kept secrets still, but
certainly that announcement from the government supporting more events coming
into New Zealand has been really good as well.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Right heym She talked about actually employing people. Have you
tried looking for people because it's pretty hard to find
the right people.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I've heard it's really hard. Yeah, I haven't. We haven't
looked yet it's still in the it's probably in the
next six to twelve months that we do look for
start looking for people. But yeah, I'm sure it would
be very tough at the moment, especially finding people that
just fit in with the team and sort of buy
into your ethos. That's that would be.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's what you've got to sell, don't you. Yeah, same
with you, Jamie. I mean, how do you find staff
that really want to be part of it?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think it's good buggers. Like I was just Hamish
made a connection straight out with you. I think you
want to buy from people that you trust and you
enjoy working around and all those things. And it's feels
straight away, mate, you've got that about you. You feel
like you're it's more than just meat. And I think
for the campus out there, it's more than just somewhere
to put your head down. It's actually got a real
connection undertone to it. We really thrive on that sort
(19:55):
of cultural connection.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Nick.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I was going to throw it back at you, mate.
I read an open letter this morning from Chocolate Fish
saying that that was struggling to get good people to
move into their cafe and Chocolate Fishes stalwart of Wellington cafes.
And I don't know enough about this, but they were
talking about there's no path or residency for skilled staff
in the hospitality industry, and I just don't know how
that quite works. Where other sectors get the benefit of that.
(20:20):
Why would that not be the case in.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Hospital because they think of hospo as sort of second
rate employee, you know, just down down the bottom end
of it. And any key we can do it, any
key he wants to do it, so we don't need
to bring people in. Is getting slightly better? Is getting
slightly better, it feels like, but it's still a tough job.
I mean, it's you know, but this is not about me.
It's about you guys. I'm not here to answer questions
(20:43):
from you. I want to talk about opportunities and solutions. Hamris,
Have I made you in charge of Wellington for a day.
What would you do to make Wellington a better place?
What are you see? I mean, you've traveled the world,
you're a bright young guy. You've come back to the
family farm, You've seen a lot of the world. What
(21:06):
do you think we're missing in Wellington and what can
we do better?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
We we have an amazing city, it's so compact, it's
so easy to get around. There's there's if you're into
your outdoors, you've got nature on the on all around
the coast. And if yeah, I first have the keys
to the day, I just encourage do whatever I can
to just encourage people back into the city. We've seen parking, whatever,
(21:32):
Just get people back in, get more of a vibe
and a buzz happening around the place.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Do you get do you I mean, do you think
people come into the city enough? Do you think that
we do use the city enough? I was in Wellington
at twelve thirty exactly twelve thirty yesterday Sunday. Lampton Key
was completely dead. A few women from well in the
makeup Mecca, makeup shop, few people at wit calls, nothing anywhere.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well I can't sort of say to that during the week,
so I'm out battling hills. But yeah, I think you're right,
we probably need to We do need to encourage more people.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We've seen Ian Jamie, I'd love to get your view
on this one. We've seen the report in the last
couple of weeks about the benefits of transmission gully infrastructure,
really important infrastructure. It's worth millions to us. We're not
sitting in cars, We're moving people. There's a lot of
infrastructure that needs to be done to connect Upperhart in
the city as well. Work needs to be done. What
(22:27):
are your thoughts on that? What needs to be done next?
Do you think? Well?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
I think since twenty twenty four the current government had
it more of a mindset around the public private partnerships
to try and accelerate some of that infrastructure growth. And
I maintain that still we may have some bad experiences
from time to time, but not to throw the baby
out with the bath water and keep encouraging that. I
think we play to our strengths. Wellington is incredible for
the arts and the culture and the events coming in
which supports the food and beverage in the accommodation industry.
(22:54):
But we also need to start considering, well, what are
the things that we must have? What are the needs?
The needs are better public transport, the needs are better
medical and health services. We have one of the most
horrendous weight lists in News Zealand for getting some of
our indo CEA specialists or screening and imagery open up
the doors for the private partnerships around public private partnerships
(23:14):
around that sort of thing. I think we can also
see an education there's been a move to entertain more
charter schools. I think that'll that'll create sort of another avenue.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Need be something that you guys would set up out there.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Look it could be and look there are people currently
looking at that nick hundred percent in conjunction with using
space at the campus.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So bringing back tertiary study to the old cit how
cool will that be? A full circle of thirty odd
years now since it happened but closed down originally in
two thousand and two thousand and one when Trevor Mallard
brought three polytechs into one. And knowing Trevor, he loves
what they do at the campus and it's a great
place to be. But yeah, tertiary study, secondary school study,
(23:56):
health and education go hand in hand. We must have
those things back and a way to do it is
exploring public private partnerships.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Harish, what's next for Wellington? What's the next project you
really want to see, you know, infrastructure change in the city.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I was thinking about this the other day, and even
just if you brought back the discussion around the Wellington
Airport and having Wellington as a port for tourists to
come straight into, you've automatically got a whole lot more
people coming into the city and it's their first taste
of New Zealand without having to go from Auckland to
(24:30):
christ Auckland or christ Church up here. That could open
the doors, help few more people through the gates.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean, do you have to go to the airport much?
Do you know how difficult it is. I mean it's
pretty difficult to get through there. That second Mount Victoria
tunnel must be a must for Wellington.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, yeah, definitely second lane and through there. Interesting though
for me. I've gone and picked up Caroline from the
airport a couple of times when she's flown in from
Melbourne on the midnight flight, and I can get there
from the farm in about twenty five minutes, so it's
still not too bad. Twenty five minutes was more than
my commute for It's right, that's true.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I tried do it at five o'clock in the afternoon.
You'll be ringing me up. You'll be ringing up and
talk back.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
I'll be bringing you up on talkback the next day.
Still in the traffic.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So you haven't got anything that you think from a
farmer's perspective, what we could do better in Wellington for infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
From from a farming perspective, we are Wellington's I guess
not very it's not it's not a very big place
for farmers to to get much value from. Apart from
policy and government and those sorts of things. If we
look at the infrastructure itself, anything that will make the
city move faster and better will definitely be a good thing.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, Wellington's not big full stop, so that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
The more we can put this traffic is still pretty horrific,
it is.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But if the more we can connect through Transmission, Galley,
the Carpety Coast, Potty Roya Hut, Valley, Upper Heart, bring
those together like have a community where we sort of
we do get out into those regions. And I again
really please that recently Wellington and zi had Haart and
Upperhart have been getting together more often to discuss how
we can compliment each other. We can't work in isolation.
We need scale, we need volume, we need more bodies
(26:12):
in beds. We need to act together.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Let's talk about local body elections. Hamous, you're looking at
me like you don't. Aren't that really interested? We've got
a new mayor in Wellington. We possibly we've got a
new mayor in lal Harte as well. That's right, yeah, yeah,
so we won't have a new mayor Upperhart. I don't believe,
but I could be wrong. Hamos, what's your thoughts? Have
(26:35):
you given any thought to the local body? How important
the local body elections to you? And do you care?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I mean they're important for everyone to have their say
for us out on the farm, Like we're all rates
pars and we want those rates to be used as
efficiently as possible. I don't really have an opinion to
get people out there to go one way or another,
but as long as they vote, they can have their
(27:01):
say and then no one can complain who wins the
race one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're pretty fired up about this. She reckoned is a
bit of a race sided heart. I mean you're the
second person that's told me that. Yeah, no, I do.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Look, we have really good relationships with our local councils
and Mayor Guppy should he win this time around, and
he's a very good chance of doing it, and he's
had a very open door for us all the way
through he'll become the longest serving mayor I understanding in
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I think he equals the same as Tim. She's amazing
and so he's been.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
He's been a big supporter from day dot, really big
fan of gup and again because he has that open
door for sort of policy. I think Angela McLeod out
there is doing some good things as well, and she
could possibly be a great mentor for some young people
coming through the likes of Henry Gray. I think one
of the younger candidates having so that they experienced to
run up Ahart the next little while is really important.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I want to know what thought you start to getting
all excited, idea.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
I'm excited because I think I do like Brady Dyer
and Ken lab and both good humans. And I think
Ken has got the got the energy and the connections
and he'll bring people to get other Brady's out there
doing the markey. He's knocking on doors and he's getting
to know people, and he's got a genuine passion for
the heart, and I think they both do. It'd be
a shame they maybe can't coexist, but I just don't
know how that would happen.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Gosh, I mean, as I say second person, it's mentioned
that in a week, let's talk about quickly, can if
I've got time quickly talk about events and city life.
We've talked about it during the ad breaks, Jamie. How
important are events to a city? I mean, I know
that you were lucky enough to have the All Blacks
and Wrexham stay with you in that, but just events
(28:41):
like wow, we need them as a city.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, you've got to get the T shirt. You want
to go to events, you want to buy the merch,
you want to have bodies in beds, having those extra that.
We aren't a big population, we need those events coming
in to support them and get that out of town
visitor coming in as well as hamished. Wellington's a really
connected city. Within two hours, you can be out back
at Riversdale Beach where I was this morning earlier, or
you can be out playing any number of golf courses
(29:06):
or or anything like that. We're a connected, cool city.
We can do more to bring those events in and
once people are here they love it like they again,
so it's the best kept secret.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
How amos your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Well? Growing up here we were the best little capital
in the world. And it seems like we've sort of
lost that narrative and Wellington gets bashed by the rest
of the media in the country. But I think, yeah,
bring as many events to the city as possible and
just get people back into the city. The number of
people that are coming up to the market, stores that
(29:39):
are visiting for Wow, last Sunday, the one the weekend before,
people just visiting for the All Blacks tests. It's incredible
how those events really bring people in.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Can I love doing this? Quickly? I'm going to tell
you what college you went to? You went to college
and Wellington or did you go to a boarding school?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
College and Wellington?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Okay, you went to Onslow or Wellington College? Which one?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Was it?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Onslow?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
There you go? Wasn't bad, was it? You're pretty impressed
with that.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I am impressed. Tarot cards start that.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I can tell colleges people which twelve Yeah, I'm not right?
Oh right, Oh guys, tell me this, Jamie. I'm going
to start with you. Sometimes, flying from Sydney, piece.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Of Cake, I would drive from the airport. I go
straight to the base in the reserve and to celebrate
how much of a magnificent venue that is for a start,
it's quite unique and iconic. I would probably go straight
out to Eastbourne and to say, he look, this is
where you can be in sort of thirty minutes of
the city. It feels like you're middle of nowhere. I'll
go out to Nzcis obviously and showcase that world class environment,
down to see Philip Brewtown and all make the events
(30:42):
that guy's got coming in as testament to him and
all the hard MARCHI days guys do. And I'd probably
go across the Royal Wellington and bash some golf balls.
It's a beautiful course. Again, middle of nowhere, but within
a forty five hour hour drive you've seen some really
cool locations. And just go back to what Hamish said,
it's connected. Wellington is a connected city. We it to
leveraged that more. Need to bring along good people on
(31:03):
that journey and Hamish make all the best. I think
it's what you guys are doing. Call and just encourage
people to spend money with good people.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Hamershokpe a friend of yours, a colleague. When you're working
in Aussie it comes into Wellington, never been here before?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yep, what do you gonna do with them? It depends
depends on the wind. If it's a northerly or southerly,
you've got either oriental or lyle Bay to take them,
get the travel out of their system, taking for a
nice cold swim. And then if we can see the
city from the top of Mount Vick, I think that's
a great point to just show the geography of the city.
Then it would be rude of me not to take
(31:37):
them out to the farm, give them a wee farm tour,
show them, show them where everything happens, and then we'll
come straight back into the city and we'll just go
to a couple of craft brewery places, maybe a wine bar,
and then to one of Wellington's countless amazing restaurants for dinner.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Thank you both for coming and giving up some of
your time. I think you're both amazing stories Hamish best.
We wish you all the very very best, and I'm
going to definitely get up earlier and get to them
and get my Sunday roast. Jamie, what do we say
about you? Thank you, Thank you for all you've done
for our city, thank you for all you've done for sport,
and thank you for being you. I mean, I've never
(32:18):
ever heard a bad word about you and everybody is
always very positive, so thank you and all the very
very best. You should have run for Mere of Wellington.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
That would be For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills,
Listen live to news talks It'd Be Wellington from nine
am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Every two Mondays every fortnight we do a business panel
where we invite a couple of wellingtoned Wellingtonian business people
into the studio and we talk business. We talk about
what's going really well, what's not going so well and
what can we do to make our great city, our
great area better. Sixth generation oh Harrier Valley farmer and
(00:37):
Conscious Valley meat owner Hamish Best. Good morning, AMers, I'm great. Thanks.
How is the farm this morning? What times you get up?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Actually? With the rain on the roof, I had a
good with the rain on the roof. I had a
good sleep and got up probably about half our six
but lay in bed listening to the beautiful rain.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Isn't it fantastic? Have you got your farming boots on?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I can't see I've got my town boots on today.
Look like a city slicker today.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'll tell you why I made that comment. In a
couple of minutes in z Sea Performance Institute director Jamie
taut Hew. You going, Jamie Salubrius, Nick, Why are you leaving?
Why are you going? It's been a hell of a journey.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
That's to say, the least hell of a journey. Look,
it's coming up ten years. It'll be sort of February
March next year. I would have come across Mail Gillies
and there's a story to that as well, maybe for
later time. But yeah, ten years since the vision was
conceived by Malan, three years start of September since it's open,
so it's definitely moved from the I guess the design
and scoping stage. It's been delivered three years ago and
(01:37):
now it's time for that baby to walk and it yeah,
heading off.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So is that kind of what the reason? You know,
it was your dream to build this an amazing facility
and those people that have not seen it, I have
not heard about it. You're living under a rock. This
is a world class and I don't say that lightly.
A world class training facility more than a training facility.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Yeah, it is definitely more than the training facility. And
I think, yeah, credit to Melan keV just for having
that vision ten years ago and trusting me to sort
of getting involved with that scope and design. But today
we try and take the high performance mindset. It's not
just about sport. I think it's something we'll probably talk
about today. It's sort of that agglomeration of different activity
out there now that really makes it a high performance campus.
Whether that's having conferencing out there, whether it's last week
(02:23):
we've had we've had master plumbers on site, we've got
police on site, We've got different activity. But it's a
high performance mindset of how you do things better.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Talking about a high performance farm. I got a hell
of a fright when I was watching Country Calendar, one
of my must go to programs on a Sunday night,
and I saw the little arrow come in and go
to Wellington. I said, farm in Wellington. Got very interested then, Hamish,
(02:51):
I found out that you were this young farmer and
it was your dad's farm. Didn't talk to you, They
didn't have your dad on the show very much. I
was quite kind of quite interested in him as well.
Tell us about your farm because it's very hilly.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, the farmer is incredibly steep. There's a reason us
best to pretty lean and mean. We're crawling all over
those hills all week long. But yeah, the farm's been Dad,
Mum and dad bought the farm about thirty three odd
years ago. Dad grew up in the valley, and yeah,
all of the generations leading back to George coming off
(03:26):
a boat basically grew up there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So how amazing to have be a farmer and live
fifteen minutes ten minutes away from the capital city. I mean,
it's kind of weird. That's why it got me interested.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, it's very unique to be able to come into
town like I did this morning for a flat white
and some breakfast just before cruising in here. It's pretty unique.
Only takes if the traffic's not built up, it takes
fifteen minutes. So yeah, we're very lucky to live so
close to such a wonderful city but also so remote
that you could think you're in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Now I've read a bit about it too, and I
watched the program and the sea air comes across it
makes them meat differently, When did you decide that you
were actually going to be your own butcher as well
and do all your whole own sort of meat product
as well.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
When I was living in Melbourne and I was living
over there during COVID, there was my favorite little butcher there.
It was quite pricey, but they still had queues as
a lot like down the streets during COVID there and
you'd walk through the supermarket and you'd see that in
the middle of one of I guess Melbourne's most vegetarian
(04:34):
type suburbs, the meat trendy suburbs, trendy suburbs. The meat
shelves were all empty, and so I knew that there
was like there was a market for good, high quality
meat and so and I couldn't quite get the taste
of home anywhere else, and so I just thought it
was a bit of nostalgia. But I came straight back
and again tasted the lamb, and I thought, yeah, we've
(04:56):
got a product here that we want to share with Wellingtonians.
We don't want to basically, we don't want to leave
the farm gate and then never see it again.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, how much of your product goes to just into
your own retail stuff and how much goes outside of that.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
At the moment, one hundred percent of our beef is
coming into the city and then we're sitting at about
forty to fifty percent of our lamb. But as we
as the business grows, that's going to be one hundred
wow hopefully, And it's.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Only available at the market and down in Shafer's Marine Market.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yep, it's only available in Wellington at the markets every Sunday.
We have an online store for delivering to Wellingtonians and
then we're in a few restaurants dotted around the city
and where it's also stocked in more Wilson's as well
if you need it during the week.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Wow, fantastic, Jamie. You're nodding your head and getting excited there.
You're thinking of, you know, thinking you're going to have
some of that meat, aren't.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
You, mate.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Absolutely. Look, I'm from Scone one Hunter Valley, That's where
I come across here in ninety ninety seven. But we're
talking just before we come on air about the good
old black Angus and how I enjoyed coming from a
rural background and really looking forward to having some of
my Scone Nights come over. I don't have you call
them scon Knights, they're from Scone, but we'll go with
that coming over in a couple of weeks time. But
now you've put it on my radar, mate, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Okay, Jamie. You've had the all blacks there, You've had
the whole sorts of sports teams out there. Tell us
how the year has gone so far?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I was reflecting on that actually, Nick, because I think
maybe twelve months ago we sat here and we're talking
about some of the challenges in Wellington. We talked about
the potential of some of these teams coming out and
certainly the likes of Wrexham was a really good example.
When they hit town, things happened, the town felt vibrant.
The work that Wellington and z and Tourist New Zealand
did around so the promotion and the cool things they
did at boom Rock and then down in Queenstown just superb.
(06:42):
And that energy that they bring. It's good for the
campus and it's good for Wellington, but more over it's
good for New Zealand. So that's been pretty cool. We've
had the doubleheader Black Ferns and All Blacks both playing
in Wellington together and again having the athletes around really
lifted the vibe. And then more recently and despite the result,
having the All Blacks out of the campus is another
(07:02):
really good thing. And the commercial tenants out there, the
other government departments who see the All Blacks walking around,
it's it's nice. It just brings energy commercially.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
How's it working? I mean, is that one hell of
an investment. Let's we're talking a massive investment.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, huge.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So is it commercially going to work out for them?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Well, I think one of the things that they've done
well is it's a mitigation or risk by having a
lot of diverse revenue streams. So I think going back
to its core, it's commercial real estate and there's twenty
odd thousand square mete as a commercial real estate that
Malcolm's filling up with government tenants and the like, and
that helps. It's as you know, one of the biggest
hotels in the in the North Island. That's four hundred
(07:44):
beds of accommodation and going.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Out like private units and connections or is that actually
a hotel?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, look it's yeah, booking dot com jump on, have
a look at the village. It's they're cool apartments and
when the all Blacks are there they fill them up.
But likewise, conferences are available for generally do.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
All black stay out there?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
They do? Oh yeah, and Wrexham State out there and
like talking to the coaches, they like it because it's
less stress. You're not getting on off buses, you can
make more efficiency out of your day. But yeah, I
think the team out there are really seeing that conference
market like it as well because they get access to
some of the facility. The food is outstanding, like the
(08:19):
guys at Star Hospital out there do a fantastic job
with Andy the chef and team. But going back to
your question, mate, look, I think yeah, the commercial real estate,
having the accommodation there, having the food and beverage there,
and the sports facility. Look, the sports facility is a
sexy part and it's great to have that there, but
it wouldn't work in isolation. You need that other activity
(08:40):
going on.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So long term is it going to work out for them?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I think what they've seen this year already is if
you compare and Belinda was talking the other day see
at nzcis about the opency rates at the campus have
been higher than in Wellington Central, and I think it's
because it has those points of difference. So I think
they walk into the future optimistically. I think it's probably
taken a bit longer to get going than you would like,
but that's on the back of COVID, it's on the
(09:05):
back of an economic downturn and the fact you've got
those different areas of revenues coming in. I think that's
going to be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So Hamish back to you, what are the challenges of
farming so close to a city all the you know,
no other farmers apart from you there.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, we do have a little community. There's about five,
five or six other farms the same size of it
as us in the valley. But yeah, you're right, it
is tough. We are away from most rural infrastructure, sale yards,
rual supply stores. We are very lucky to have the
Taylor Prestons down the Noonger Gorge. That's a that's a
big asset.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That does all your butchering for you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yep, that's where the abatire is and then it goes
to Preston's out in Grenada. They do all the cutting
and then it comes back to us for I guess distribution.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And so you do all the distribution yourself, all the marketing,
all the sales, everything's all done through your through a farm. Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Unique and New Zealand there's a few more businesses like
that popping up. And it was amazing after the Country
Calendar show how many people outside of Wellington really wanted
to get in touch for the meat and we had
to sort of push them away. Or push them in
directions of similar businesses in the Hawk's Bay or up
in Auckland. So it is happening more and more.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, what is the downside of the economy as it
is at the moment where people are watching what they spend.
We are in a really tough time. Your meat would be,
because of its quality and everything else, be a bit
more expensive.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yep, yep. It's probably at the top of the price
bracket for meat. But we encourage people. Red meat is
a luxury item and if you're going to spend money
on some red meat, it might as well be something
that's that the retailer or the person selling it to
you will stand by and I guess our quality is
never compromised and you'll always have a positive eating experience.
(10:55):
So the downturn will affect what people spend on red meat,
but it's also an item that is nutritious and tasty.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We have home Best Jamie Taunt in the studio. We
are the business panel and we're having a bit of
a chat about business stuff. Right, we know all about
them now economic outlook, Jamie, let's start with you. I mean,
the GBD quarter figures were down zero point nine. The
worst than any economists predicted. I mean, does that have
(11:27):
any relativity whatsoever to somebody running a big business. Does
it Do we look at it and go while we're
in trouble now or is it just something that's in
the back of our mind.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I would Yeah, it wasn't unexpected necessarily, it's probably the
depth of it was right. But I think most people
are out there still planning that. It is a pretty
tough environment, so they probably had thought about this, and
we're planning for it. Steve Henson once said, and I've
got to remind myself that worry is a wasted in motion.
And I think you just need to get on and
be positive. And I think hearing Hamish some of the
stuff that's the cool stuff that's going on there, just
(11:59):
need to get on with it. And I'd love to
introduce you make the feel going out at brute Own Market,
so it's an another good avenue for you to get
out there amongst that. Yeah, it is what it is,
and unfortunately that that data is a little bit old, right,
so sort of that that snake's tail that happens. Now,
we'll wait and see what happens. But ideally you wouldn't
be playing the game. You'd love to play the game
and know the result. We don't. We find out well
(12:21):
after so people are.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Changed the way you run. You does it? You look
at it and go, oh shit, those GBD fingers came out?
What do we do? What do we do?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
It wasn't a dramatic surprise, right, Yeah, it's sort of
people have been planning and trying to be agile as
it is already. And again you look at the businesses
that are doing well. They are diversifying their essay, are
mitigating some of their expenditure through trying it, trying other things.
So yeah, it'd be nice to have that that real
time information, but I don't think it changes things. Nick.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did it change anything for you? How much did you
actually sit down and think, us, look, this is not
the outlooks not as good as what I thought it was.
Do I need to make any changes? Did you actually
even have the conversation?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Well, I sort of thought that those figures were what
they were. It's the court of it's been and it's
not the couarter of that's in front of us. And
I think if you worry too much about how bad
it's been, you'll you'll be sort of being stuck in
a rut, whereas if you look forward to what's coming,
we've got a spring and in summer ahead of us.
(13:19):
You know the place is going to be starting to
pick up again as tourists roll back into New Zealand
for the summer. You look at agriculture across New Zealand
and it's it's thriving at the moment. And as far
as the GDP figure goes, yep, there was a bit
of a speed bump, not quite as not not as
it was a lot bigger than what was expected. But
again we've just got to be positive and move forward.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You're an exciting time in your business. You're doing really
well and it's moving and you're looking you're appealing to
sort of an upmarket, you know, segment of the community.
They don't sort of seem to care as much, do they.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Well, we have noticed that, yeah, probably the average spend
per transaction has dropped, but again we're only a year
and a half old, so we probably don't have enough
data to look at it. But a lot of the
restaurants that we're supplying this time last year was incredibly
tough and if we look at twelve months on. The
(14:16):
people that we've been supplying, their orders have been slightly
bigger and they're feeling a little bit more positive about
what's happening. You've got wow coming to Wellington. I feel
like if you're out on the streets there's more of
a buzz around.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Right and Apperhart Jamie, what does it feel like out there?
Does it feel like that it is coming right? I mean,
I hate that those terms people are using green shoots,
but does it feel like it's coming right?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I think optimistically We've got some really awesome events happening
out of the campus through quarter one of next year,
and the team out there have done a great job
securing the men's Asia Pacific Lacross tournament, eight international teams
coming in. There's a large women's golf amateur event happening
in conjunction with Royal Wellington. So the team across there,
Dylan Linstrom and the team have done really well to
secure that. There's men's Touch nationals coming into town and
(15:02):
they're the things that are happening. Is that of January
February March of next year, a commune to.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
You that you're amongst you know when you walk down town,
does it feel like you just feel like it's lifting.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I think if and again I'll talk about Breuetown Markets.
You walk out there on a Sunday, it's it's humming,
it's buzzing, and people got smiles on their faces and
they enjoy being there. And again, Upper Hearts had a
lot of cool activity in this last decade with Lane
Street Studios, with Breuetown, with NZ's cis obviously the recent
announcement out there with the paper moving out. So there's
lots of cool things happening, mate, And I think the
(15:32):
double tracking has helped having the better public transport. I think, yeah,
diversification and having good transport out in the Upper Hut
certainly makes a big difference to it keeping the momentum,
and it has shown it's above the national average in
terms of growth for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And your market too. I mean, that's my Sunday go
to the weathers, right, how much difference does it actually
make when the weather's not okay, when it's blowing and
jail and raining.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, it's chalk and cheese. You can stand there on
a even a blustery daylight yesterday and you can just
tell the people density out in front of you is
significantly lower. And I mean no one likes going out
there battling a norwester that blows your shopping bags out
of your hands. So yeah, the weather has a bit
of an effect.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Doesn't have an effect on their mindset. Was spending too.
They go in there and rush and grab what they
need and go.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
We're different. We definitely sell different products during the year,
but the weather on the day not so much. I
think people go there with their shopping list and they
buy what they.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
How long have you been there.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
It'll be two years in November.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So have you noticed it getting better? Yep, yep, but
then considerably or just a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It's hard for us because obviously products are going so
as we gain and popularity and people find out about us,
then we get busier. So we believe that it's busier,
but they could be.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
They're talking. Do you know that the stallholders stopped? Stallholders
all talk to each other.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
They're all I mean, like, for example, this weekend, it
was a bit down because of that horrible wind, but
then the week the two weeks before everyone was having
a great time.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, I mean it is completely chalk and cheese. You're right,
let's get some quick fire stuff. Let's get some moving here,
Hamish coming to you first, what's the single biggest challenge
or pressure your business is facing at the moment.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
On the farming front, it was probably the increase in
inflation over the last three years with a deep downturn
and pricing the last three years, it's just been costs up,
prices received down. That was the biggest challenge moving forward.
The biggest challenge for us, I guess is getting growing
(17:34):
our conscious valley business and employing staff because we're now
at a size where we probably need to start thinking
about staffing and where we place those people and who
we get.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Do you think you're going to full retail? Do you
think that's something you look at maybe you know on
the farm or something.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, it's always been a bit of a bit of
a dream to have a to have a shop, a
farm shop. I don't know whether it would be better
suited on the farm or out in the suburbs somewhere,
because it's still even though it's for me it's a
short drive.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
A feature out to the farm where you meet it'd
be like you're like a you know, Disneyland and Wellington.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, true, maybe we'll get a roller coaster going as well.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I was kidd Jamie, tell me who's got a bigger
impact on your business? Central or local government?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Oh, Nick hadn't foresaw that one coming, but I would
probably say central government. Local has been very supportive and
I think we've seen awesome examples recently where Wellington and
Hut City and Upper Heart are actually putting their name
in the hat to tender collectively for events, So that
level of collaboration is awesome. I think the government recent
(18:39):
recent announcement about supporting more events coming into New Zealand
is fantastic. I think ensuring that they know that we
have got a proper high performance venue here that can
cater for sports teams and other events is something we
need to get the word out there. I think it's
one of the New Zealand's best kept secrets still, but
certainly that announcement from the government supporting more events coming
into New Zealand has been really good as well.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Right heym She talked about actually employing people. Have you
tried looking for people because it's pretty hard to find
the right people.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I've heard it's really hard. Yeah, I haven't. We haven't
looked yet it's still in the it's probably in the
next six to twelve months that we do look for
start looking for people. But yeah, I'm sure it would
be very tough at the moment, especially finding people that
just fit in with the team and sort of buy
into your ethos. That's that would be.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's what you've got to sell, don't you. Yeah, same
with you, Jamie. I mean, how do you find staff
that really want to be part of it?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think it's good buggers. Like I was just Hamish
made a connection straight out with you. I think you
want to buy from people that you trust and you
enjoy working around and all those things. And it's feels
straight away, mate, you've got that about you. You feel
like you're it's more than just meat. And I think
for the campus out there, it's more than just somewhere
to put your head down. It's actually got a real
connection undertone to it. We really thrive on that sort
(19:55):
of cultural connection.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Nick.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I was going to throw it back at you, mate.
I read an open letter this morning from Chocolate Fish
saying that that was struggling to get good people to
move into their cafe and Chocolate Fishes stalwart of Wellington cafes.
And I don't know enough about this, but they were
talking about there's no path or residency for skilled staff
in the hospitality industry, and I just don't know how
that quite works. Where other sectors get the benefit of that.
(20:20):
Why would that not be the case in.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Hospital because they think of hospo as sort of second
rate employee, you know, just down down the bottom end
of it. And any key we can do it, any
key he wants to do it, so we don't need
to bring people in. Is getting slightly better? Is getting
slightly better, it feels like, but it's still a tough job.
I mean, it's you know, but this is not about me.
It's about you guys. I'm not here to answer questions
(20:43):
from you. I want to talk about opportunities and solutions. Hamris,
Have I made you in charge of Wellington for a day.
What would you do to make Wellington a better place?
What are you see? I mean, you've traveled the world,
you're a bright young guy. You've come back to the
family farm, You've seen a lot of the world. What
(21:06):
do you think we're missing in Wellington and what can
we do better?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
We we have an amazing city, it's so compact, it's
so easy to get around. There's there's if you're into
your outdoors, you've got nature on the on all around
the coast. And if yeah, I first have the keys
to the day, I just encourage do whatever I can
to just encourage people back into the city. We've seen parking, whatever,
(21:32):
Just get people back in, get more of a vibe
and a buzz happening around the place.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Do you get do you I mean, do you think
people come into the city enough? Do you think that
we do use the city enough? I was in Wellington
at twelve thirty exactly twelve thirty yesterday Sunday. Lampton Key
was completely dead. A few women from well in the
makeup Mecca, makeup shop, few people at wit calls, nothing anywhere.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well I can't sort of say to that during the week,
so I'm out battling hills. But yeah, I think you're right,
we probably need to We do need to encourage more people.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We've seen Ian Jamie, I'd love to get your view
on this one. We've seen the report in the last
couple of weeks about the benefits of transmission gully infrastructure,
really important infrastructure. It's worth millions to us. We're not
sitting in cars, We're moving people. There's a lot of
infrastructure that needs to be done to connect Upperhart in
the city as well. Work needs to be done. What
(22:27):
are your thoughts on that? What needs to be done next?
Do you think? Well?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
I think since twenty twenty four the current government had
it more of a mindset around the public private partnerships
to try and accelerate some of that infrastructure growth. And
I maintain that still we may have some bad experiences
from time to time, but not to throw the baby
out with the bath water and keep encouraging that. I
think we play to our strengths. Wellington is incredible for
the arts and the culture and the events coming in
which supports the food and beverage in the accommodation industry.
(22:54):
But we also need to start considering, well, what are
the things that we must have? What are the needs?
The needs are better public transport, the needs are better
medical and health services. We have one of the most
horrendous weight lists in News Zealand for getting some of
our indo CEA specialists or screening and imagery open up
the doors for the private partnerships around public private partnerships
(23:14):
around that sort of thing. I think we can also
see an education there's been a move to entertain more
charter schools. I think that'll that'll create sort of another avenue.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Need be something that you guys would set up out there.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Look it could be and look there are people currently
looking at that nick hundred percent in conjunction with using
space at the campus.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So bringing back tertiary study to the old cit how
cool will that be? A full circle of thirty odd
years now since it happened but closed down originally in
two thousand and two thousand and one when Trevor Mallard
brought three polytechs into one. And knowing Trevor, he loves
what they do at the campus and it's a great
place to be. But yeah, tertiary study, secondary school study,
(23:56):
health and education go hand in hand. We must have
those things back and a way to do it is
exploring public private partnerships.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Harish, what's next for Wellington? What's the next project you
really want to see, you know, infrastructure change in the city.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I was thinking about this the other day, and even
just if you brought back the discussion around the Wellington
Airport and having Wellington as a port for tourists to
come straight into, you've automatically got a whole lot more
people coming into the city and it's their first taste
of New Zealand without having to go from Auckland to
(24:30):
christ Auckland or christ Church up here. That could open
the doors, help few more people through the gates.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean, do you have to go to the airport much?
Do you know how difficult it is. I mean it's
pretty difficult to get through there. That second Mount Victoria
tunnel must be a must for Wellington.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, yeah, definitely second lane and through there. Interesting though
for me. I've gone and picked up Caroline from the
airport a couple of times when she's flown in from
Melbourne on the midnight flight, and I can get there
from the farm in about twenty five minutes, so it's
still not too bad. Twenty five minutes was more than
my commute for It's right, that's true.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I tried do it at five o'clock in the afternoon.
You'll be ringing me up. You'll be ringing up and
talk back.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
I'll be bringing you up on talkback the next day.
Still in the traffic.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So you haven't got anything that you think from a
farmer's perspective, what we could do better in Wellington for infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
From from a farming perspective, we are Wellington's I guess
not very it's not it's not a very big place
for farmers to to get much value from. Apart from
policy and government and those sorts of things. If we
look at the infrastructure itself, anything that will make the
city move faster and better will definitely be a good thing.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, Wellington's not big full stop, so that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
The more we can put this traffic is still pretty horrific,
it is.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But if the more we can connect through Transmission, Galley,
the Carpety Coast, Potty Roya Hut, Valley, Upper Heart, bring
those together like have a community where we sort of
we do get out into those regions. And I again
really please that recently Wellington and zi had Haart and
Upperhart have been getting together more often to discuss how
we can compliment each other. We can't work in isolation.
We need scale, we need volume, we need more bodies
(26:12):
in beds. We need to act together.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Let's talk about local body elections. Hamous, you're looking at
me like you don't. Aren't that really interested? We've got
a new mayor in Wellington. We possibly we've got a
new mayor in lal Harte as well. That's right, yeah, yeah,
so we won't have a new mayor Upperhart. I don't believe,
but I could be wrong. Hamos, what's your thoughts? Have
(26:35):
you given any thought to the local body? How important
the local body elections to you? And do you care?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I mean they're important for everyone to have their say
for us out on the farm, Like we're all rates
pars and we want those rates to be used as
efficiently as possible. I don't really have an opinion to
get people out there to go one way or another,
but as long as they vote, they can have their
(27:01):
say and then no one can complain who wins the
race one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're pretty fired up about this. She reckoned is a
bit of a race sided heart. I mean you're the
second person that's told me that. Yeah, no, I do.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Look, we have really good relationships with our local councils
and Mayor Guppy should he win this time around, and
he's a very good chance of doing it, and he's
had a very open door for us all the way
through he'll become the longest serving mayor I understanding in
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I think he equals the same as Tim. She's amazing
and so he's been.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
He's been a big supporter from day dot, really big
fan of gup and again because he has that open
door for sort of policy. I think Angela McLeod out
there is doing some good things as well, and she
could possibly be a great mentor for some young people
coming through the likes of Henry Gray. I think one
of the younger candidates having so that they experienced to
run up Ahart the next little while is really important.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I want to know what thought you start to getting
all excited, idea.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
I'm excited because I think I do like Brady Dyer
and Ken lab and both good humans. And I think
Ken has got the got the energy and the connections
and he'll bring people to get other Brady's out there
doing the markey. He's knocking on doors and he's getting
to know people, and he's got a genuine passion for
the heart, and I think they both do. It'd be
a shame they maybe can't coexist, but I just don't
know how that would happen.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Gosh, I mean, as I say second person, it's mentioned
that in a week, let's talk about quickly, can if
I've got time quickly talk about events and city life.
We've talked about it during the ad breaks, Jamie. How
important are events to a city? I mean, I know
that you were lucky enough to have the All Blacks
and Wrexham stay with you in that, but just events
(28:41):
like wow, we need them as a city.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, you've got to get the T shirt. You want
to go to events, you want to buy the merch,
you want to have bodies in beds, having those extra that.
We aren't a big population, we need those events coming
in to support them and get that out of town
visitor coming in as well as hamished. Wellington's a really
connected city. Within two hours, you can be out back
at Riversdale Beach where I was this morning earlier, or
you can be out playing any number of golf courses
(29:06):
or or anything like that. We're a connected, cool city.
We can do more to bring those events in and
once people are here they love it like they again,
so it's the best kept secret.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
How amos your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Well? Growing up here we were the best little capital
in the world. And it seems like we've sort of
lost that narrative and Wellington gets bashed by the rest
of the media in the country. But I think, yeah,
bring as many events to the city as possible and
just get people back into the city. The number of
people that are coming up to the market, stores that
(29:39):
are visiting for Wow, last Sunday, the one the weekend before,
people just visiting for the All Blacks tests. It's incredible
how those events really bring people in.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Can I love doing this? Quickly? I'm going to tell
you what college you went to? You went to college
and Wellington or did you go to a boarding school?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
College and Wellington?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Okay, you went to Onslow or Wellington College? Which one?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Was it?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Onslow?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
There you go? Wasn't bad, was it? You're pretty impressed
with that.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I am impressed. Tarot cards start that.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I can tell colleges people which twelve Yeah, I'm not right?
Oh right, Oh guys, tell me this, Jamie. I'm going
to start with you. Sometimes, flying from Sydney, piece.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Of Cake, I would drive from the airport. I go
straight to the base in the reserve and to celebrate
how much of a magnificent venue that is for a start,
it's quite unique and iconic. I would probably go straight
out to Eastbourne and to say, he look, this is
where you can be in sort of thirty minutes of
the city. It feels like you're middle of nowhere. I'll
go out to Nzcis obviously and showcase that world class environment,
down to see Philip Brewtown and all make the events
(30:42):
that guy's got coming in as testament to him and
all the hard MARCHI days guys do. And I'd probably
go across the Royal Wellington and bash some golf balls.
It's a beautiful course. Again, middle of nowhere, but within
a forty five hour hour drive you've seen some really
cool locations. And just go back to what Hamish said,
it's connected. Wellington is a connected city. We it to
leveraged that more. Need to bring along good people on
(31:03):
that journey and Hamish make all the best. I think
it's what you guys are doing. Call and just encourage
people to spend money with good people.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Hamershokpe a friend of yours, a colleague. When you're working
in Aussie it comes into Wellington, never been here before?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yep, what do you gonna do with them? It depends
depends on the wind. If it's a northerly or southerly,
you've got either oriental or lyle Bay to take them,
get the travel out of their system, taking for a
nice cold swim. And then if we can see the
city from the top of Mount Vick, I think that's
a great point to just show the geography of the city.
Then it would be rude of me not to take
(31:37):
them out to the farm, give them a wee farm tour,
show them, show them where everything happens, and then we'll
come straight back into the city and we'll just go
to a couple of craft brewery places, maybe a wine bar,
and then to one of Wellington's countless amazing restaurants for dinner.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Thank you both for coming and giving up some of
your time. I think you're both amazing stories Hamish best.
We wish you all the very very best, and I'm
going to definitely get up earlier and get to them
and get my Sunday roast. Jamie, what do we say
about you? Thank you, Thank you for all you've done
for our city, thank you for all you've done for sport,
and thank you for being you. I mean, I've never
(32:18):
ever heard a bad word about you and everybody is
always very positive, so thank you and all the very
very best. You should have run for Mere of Wellington.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
That would be For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills,
Listen live to news talks It'd Be Wellington from nine
am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.