Qualifiers for 2011 Entrepreneurs' Challenge Announced

The companies – ranging from bulk material handling system developers through to tourism operators and makers of raw natural petfood – will now undergo scrutiny by the Challenge’s selection panel before the finalists are announced in September.

Selection panel chairman and Business School Executive-in-Residence Brian Hannan says the crop of applications this year was incredibly high in quality, and choosing the top 15 from the nearly 60 entrants was particularly difficult for the panel.

However, the range and scope of this year’s qualifiers show the potential that New Zealand has within innovation and entrepreneurship, he says.

The 15 qualifiers are:

Life Care Consultants
Conceived in a spare room in 1994, Life Care provides customised first aid training and health assessments, and now boasts 35 employees with work across New Zealand – in fact, the company works with seven of the top 10 companies by employee number in this country. Location: Hamilton.

JUCY Group
One of Australasia’s leading and fastest growing independent tourism brands, JUCY plans to become an international success by offering consumers the opportunity to experience JUCY throughout their travel experiences in the United States and Europe. That could also include hotel developments in Australasia and even air transportation. Location: Auckland.

Telemetry Research
Providing support to research activities in pharmaceutical companies, universities and research institutes worldwide, Telemetry has developed a market development strategy focused on driving sales to the leading pharmaceutical companies. Location: Auckland.

Nexus6
Nexus6 is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices for monitoring healthcare assets, and is planning to establish itself in North America. It also hopes to expand its overseas distribution network. Location: Auckland.

Phytomed Medicinal Herbs
A manufacturer of herbal health products, Phytomed has two brands – Phytomed ‘practitioner-only’ herbal extracts and Kiwiherb herbal medicines sold direct to consumers. Location: Auckland.

K9 Natural Food
A producer and marketer of raw natural dog and cat food, K9 was developed from the observation of grey wolves in Alaska. Purely replicating nature, K9 products offer a significant increase in health and performance of pets. Location: Christchurch.

A-Ward Attachments
A-Ward strives to provide the world’s most innovative and efficient bulk material handling systems, and its offerings include container tilters, horizontal loading products, specialized recycling and demolition excavator attachments – currently the tools of choice for leading demolition companies in Christchurch. Location: Auckland.

Enlight photo
An award-winning design company dedicated to the creation of practical inventive products for photographers, enlight is about to launch products for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that will offer never-before-available functionality from affordable shutter release cables. Location: Auckland.

KlickEx Corporation
Bringing banking systems in different countries together, KlickEx provides cheap, real-time domestic and sophisticated cross-border remittances networks between banks, customers, small businesses and out to mobile phones across the South Pacific and around the world. Location: Auckland.

ViFX Limited Partnership
A leading IT consultancy specialising in innovative advanced virtualisation and storage solutions, and Cloud Computing strategy, ViFX operates throughout Australasia within the enterprise, government and tertiary education fields. Location: Auckland.

Xlerate                                                                                                                          Mobile resource management services – a growing category of productivity solutions – integrate wireless communications, location-based technologies, GIS mapping, satellite imagery, hosted software applications, transition processing and the Internet to help companies better manage mobile assets and workers. Location: Auckland.

Bully Boy
Manufacturing a range of automatic security bollards and related products designed and built in New Zealand, Bully Boy’s products are reliable, low maintenance, tough, intelligent and easy to install. Location: Auckland.

AFT Pharmaceuticals
A 100% owned New Zealand pharmaceutical company, AFT is involved in the distribution, marketing and development of pharmaceuticals across the world, with sales expected to exceed $40m this financial year. The company has an active and growing drug development programme of patented pharmaceuticals. Location: Auckland.

FoodCap International
FoodCap International holds intellectual property around three distinct food material handling supply chain systems: FoodCap - Capsulated Meat Packaging System for the storage, aging and transport of fresh bulk meat; FoodLink - Automated Order Picking System; and FoodMove - Capsulated Stock Replenishment system for distribution of chilled food. Location: Auckland.

Booktrack
Confidential. Location: Auckland.