CHRISTCHURCH has hit another milestone in its resurgence from the tragic 2010 earthquakes with the official opening of its largest hotel – the 264-room BreakFree on Cashel – by New Zealand Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, John Key.

Mr Key, himself a Christchurch native, opened the hotel by checking in via the hi-tech hotel’s online kiosk and taking a tour of the final wing of brand new level six executive rooms – so new that guests had yet to stay. 

Breakfree on Cashel’s opening is another significant tick for business travellers to the city, along with the China Southern Airlines plan to start direct flights from Guangzhou to Christchurch in December.

With the Christchurch skyline featuring a combination of new developments and restoration of former buildings and office towers, Mayor Lianne Dalziel said the city should now feel that it has “moved beyond recovery to regeneration”.

“Developments like BreakFree on Cashel are crucial to inspire the confidence to invest in Christchurch and entice the return of visitors,” Ms Dalziel said.

The $30 million project – which importantly developed the hotel for a Grade A seismic rating – makes an environmental and heritage statement through its interior showcasing recycled timber salvaged from Christchurch buildings demolished following the earthquakes, including timber from the old stands at the iconic Lancaster Park sports stadium.

The extensive refurbishment and redesign of the hotel has been underway since new owners – Auckland-based Russell Property Group and an investment partner – purchased the property in January 2014. Christchurch-based Dalman Architecture undertook the architectural and interior design elements. 

BreakFree on Cashel is the first use of its economy brand in New Zealand by Australia-based hotel management group Mantra.

Mantra acquisitions director Michael Moret-Lalli said it would set a benchmark for the economy brand’s future CBD hotels.

“The hotel provides a glimpse of the future urban hotel design incorporating the important elements that make a great hotel – a clever use of space; comfortable quality beds; and seamless social spaces that integrate lifestyle and technology,” Mr Moret-Lalli said.

www.breakfree.com.au

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EXTRA >>

THERE is a little Aussie connecting just about every major public event worldwide right now.  Audinate, the first technology spin-off from National ICT Australia (NICTA) program, has developed a cabling, software and hardware system called Dante that is transforming audio management at major events.

Locations such as Lords Cricket Ground in London, Wimbledon and travelling major concert events including Paul McCartney and the Foo Fighters have made the switch. Even the audio systems accompanying Pope Francis utilise the Dante system.

Audinate takes the ‘traditional bundle of audio cables that characterise at concerts or are installed in office buildings, and reduces them to a single network cable that be controlled through software. 

The brainchild of musician, research and development engineer and IT professional, Aidan Williams, he describes the transformation for the professional audio industry as “the equivalent of moving from telephone switchboard operators from the early 20th century, to the modern voice over IP (VoIP) phones we use today”.

After Mr Williams came up with the concept of controlling audio over long distances, to multiple locations, without needing a mess of analogue audio cables, he and a team of researchers developed the system over a three year period with backing of government-funded NICTA.

The key to success for the Dante technology is it delivers professional quality audio over a standard computer network, with perfect synchronisation and near-zero latency.

More than 225 manufacturers including Dolby, Yamaha, Bose and Shure, embed Audinate’s Dante technology in their flagship products. It has become the de facto standard for commercial audio installed in stadiums, hotels, theme parks, and major live events.

Now Audinate, led by CEO Lee Ellison, is making a series of strategic fast-growth moves to support the growing demand for its Dante networking solution.

Sydney-based Audinate has rocketed past 500 Dante-enabled products and opened a new office in Hong Kong, headed up by newly appointed sales director for Asia Pacific, Ben Wong. There are currently 44 Dante licensees in Asia – and about half of these have signed on in the last year.

“The 500th Dante-enabled product represents a significant milestone for Audinate and our Dante OEM partners,” Mr Ellison said.

“Customer research tell us that the single biggest factor when selecting an audio networking solution, is the number of available products on the market. With hundreds of products launched in the past 12 months, Dante has reached the tipping point and has become the industry standard for audio over IP networking.”

According to InfoComm, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market in the professional audio-visual industry, and that holds true for Audinate as well. Audinate now has 44 Dante licensees in Asia, and 47 percent of those manufacturers have signed on in just the past 12 months.

Audinate’s new Hong Kong office will provide business development, technical sales and customer support.

“The fast adoption of Dante among AV manufacturers in Asia is truly exciting, and is proof that Dante has become the de facto standard in audio networking,” Mr Wong said.

“These manufacturers are selecting Dante to ensure their products have guaranteed interoperability with the hundreds of other Dante-enabled products available worldwide.”

Audinate has seen fast growth since 2006, when it span out of NICTA. It has since secured investment from Starfish Ventures and Innovation Capital, and has opened offices in Sydney, Portland, London and now Hong Kong.

https://www.audinate.com/

* In 2006, Audinate became the first company to spin out from NICTA, the government–funded research lab and since then, has secured investment from Starfish Ventures and Innovation Capital, opening offices in Sydney, Portland, London and Hong Kong. 

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FORTY-EIGHT of Brisbane’s most dynamic and innovative businesses have made the finalist list in the 10^th annual Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards (LMBAs).

Water treatment specialists Australian Innovative Systems has been nominated in two categories and Mineraltec has been named in five. 

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the nominations across 10 categories ranged from small-to-medium businesses to some of Brisbane’s largest companies.

Mineraltec, an innovative waste solution provider, is a contender for the ANZ Made in Brisbane Award for High-Growth Business Start-Up, Brisbane Times Award for Business Innovation, Port of Brisbane Award for New Investmentand Energex Award for Sustainability in Business.

Australian Innovative Systems (AIS) is nominated for the Brisbane Times Business Innovation Award – recognising the firm’s internationally successful Ecoline freshwater chlorine generation technology – and AIS CEO Elena Gosse has also been named as one of five finalists in the Channel 7 Business Person of the Year category.

Finalists in the Channel 7 Business Person of the Yearcategory include Coronis managing director Andrew Coronis, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises CEO Don Meij, Lorna Jane founder and chief creative officer Lorna Jane Clarkson, and the president and co-founder of the Record Holdings, Auscript and For the Record (FTR) Group, Peter Wyatt.

Cr Quirk said the calibre and diversity of this year’s nominees were “impressive and demonstrated the vibrancy of Brisbane business economy”.

“The 2015 LMBA finalists highlight the amazing depth of Brisbane's business community,” Cr Quirk said.

“They cover areas including hospitality, tourism, law, health services, transport, IT, digital, food, education and manufacturing.

“The Lord Mayor’s Business Awardscontinue to demonstrate why decision-makers worldwide are choosing Brisbane for business, investment, study and conventions.

“Every year these awards have highlighted some of the city’s greatest success stories and this year’s awards will be no different.”

“The finalists are raising the bar when it comes to innovation, collaboration, research and development. They are also representing Brisbane on the world stage.”

The winners will be chosen by independent judging panels for each of the 10 categories with the finalists announced at Brisbane City Hall on October 30, where they will join past winners.

The Lord Mayor’s Business Awards are staged by Brisbane Marketing and are the only awards in Brisbane to include businesses and individuals across all industries and sectors.

FINALISTS

ANZ Made in Brisbane Award for High-Growth Business Start-up: Clui, Mineraltec Industries, PlantMiner, She wear, Table & Desk, Tow.com.au, TradeMark Vision.

HSBC Award for Doing Business in Asia: Australian Country Choice, Cardno, Charlton Brown, Cook Medical Australia, Tangalooma Island Resort.

Brisbane Times Award for Business Innovation: Australian Innovative Systems, Bitpool/Value Added Engineering Group, GlobalX Legal Solutions, Heat Treatment (Qld)/Heat Treatment Australia, Mineraltec Industries, Sedgman.

Australia TradeCoast Award for Small Business Growth: PharmaData, The Landscape Construction Company, The Print Bar, u&u.

Port of Brisbane Award for New Investment: Hanworth House, Mineraltec, New Farm Cinemas, PresCare–CDC Project.

Clayton Utz Award for Corporate Citizenship: Brisbane Broncos, NuGrow, Queensland Rugby Union, Stephen Dibb Jewellery.

Energex Award for Sustainability in Business: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Mineraltec Industries, U&A Group/U&A Cleaning Services, UnitingCare Community.

Remserv Award for Digital Strategy: Brisbane Airport Corporation, Dental Members Australia, Record Holdings (Auscript and For the Record), Tow.com.au.

Singapore Airlines Award for Young Business Person of the Year: Jellaine Dee of Cherry Blooms; Joe Andon of Vuly Trampolines; Jordan Grives of the Fonebox Group of Companies; Katie Scholman of Miktysh; Scott Young of Young Guns Container Crew.

Channel 7 Award for Business Person of the Year: Andrew Coronis of Coronis; Don Meij of Domino’s Pizza Enterprises; Elena Goss of Australian Innovative Systems; Lorna Jane Clarkson of Lorna Jane; Peter Wyatt of  Record Holdings, Auscript and For the Record Group.

www.brisbanemarketing.com.au

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A FOCUS on integrating technology, solid strategic international acquisitions and organic growth across the company’s markets has been credited for Corporate Travel Management’s (CTM) record full-year profit and dividend announced on August 26.

CTM managing director Jamie Pherous said the results, which came after a significant increase in top-line growth, demonstrated the company’s business model and strategic investment decisions were working. 

Brisbane-headquartered CTM reported revenues and other income increased 79 percent to $197.9 million on total transaction value (TTV) of $2,656m (up 92%), driven by the integration of international acquisitions and organic growth in all markets.

CTM has upgraded full-year guidance to an underlying NPAT in the range of $61.3m-$63.8m – and increase of 25-30 percent.

 “These results support the strategy we have taken to integration globally, adding value to our business by ensuring we focus on integrating technology and business culture,” Mr Pherous said.

“They reflect the efforts of our award-winning team to win and retain clients, including global businesses who have recognised our international capabilities.

“We have continued to expand through increasing market share, with organic growth contributing to more than half of our top-line growth.”

In Australia and New Zealand, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 19.5 percent to $25.7m on a 13.7 percent organic increase in TTV, underpinned by internal productivity gains.

In Asia, underlying EBITDA grew 200 percent, Mr Pherous said, outperforming all market competitors with 39.4 percent organic growth.

The North American region delivered a 79.3 percent increase in EBITDA to $9.5m, supported by 17.3% organic growth.

European acquisition Chambers Travel Group’s contribution to the group is already delivering results, with a 13.2 percent increase in revenue to $17.2m.

The European expansion to CTM’s global network has delivered two globally significant clients in the past six months.

Mr Pherous said the global network was opening up new client opportunities while delivering the supplier and efficiency benefits of scale.

“We now have more than 100 clients with a presence in multiple countries who, along with other potential clients, are clearly telling us our ability to provide local expertise in all markets is incredibly important to them,” Mr Pherous said.

“We are seeing the benefits of integrating outstanding businesses and people into the CTM group, providing a robust platform for servicing our clients and continued growth.

“The key to our success is surpassing our clients’ expectations, so our focus will be on continual client-facing innovation and leveraging our scale and geography to deliver our clients a constant return on their investment.

“Internally we will continue to make it easier and more efficient for our award-winning team to work, which ensures they maximise the time invested in servicing clients,” he said.

“The structural changes we are making, to align all of our regions, are to ensure our staff are empowered, have client ownership and are able to make quick decisions.

“We will continue to grow organically and make acquisitions where they are an appropriate strategic and cultural fit for CTM, and we have demonstrated we are able to successfully integrate such acquisitions while growing market share organically.”

The CTM board declared a final fully franked dividend of 10 cents per share to be paid on October 9, 2015.

CTM is an industry partner with Queensland Leaders, NSW Leaders and Victorian Leaders – the organisations helping to foster the next generation of leading Australian companies. CTM famously used its membership of Queensland Leaders to help launch its international growth plans through an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Mr Pherous is now a member of the Queensland Leaders board and continues to help other business leaders to plan for growth through the various states’ Leaders organisations. New Zealand Leaders is set to launch this year.

www.travelctm.com

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