The TIN100 report provides an annual analysis of New Zealand’s largest globally-focused companies in the hi-tech manufacturing, biotech and ICT sectors. This year it charted a record $8.3 billion combined revenue across the TIN100 and TIN100+ companies – the highest on record since the TIN100 began 10 years ago and a 62 percent increase over the last decade.

Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce addressed the 200-strong audience, saying that the TIN100 is one of his favourite events, along with the Entrepreneur of the Year awards – the two being firmly interlinked and crucial to New Zealand in his view. He also said it is important that we publicise this crucial work and successes. While there will be a lot of focus on the numbers over the next 24 to 36 hours, Minister Joyce, who has a commercial background himself, said it’s important to remember that behind every number is a story of hard work, success, and some failures and the report is a great tribute to the efforts of the business people behind these companies.

Technology is now the third largest export sector behind dairy ($14.9 billion) and international tourism ($10.3 billion), generating $6.1 billion in exports this year. Indeed, just under three quarters of the income of the TIN100 companies is being generated through exports, despite the effects of the GFC. The high Australian growth of previous years has slowed and revenue growth this year was largest for companies of over $100 million in revenue.

For the first time the software development sector has outstripped the IT services sector to become the leading high growth category. This is due to slow down in IT services growth for the $1.2 billion revenue TIN100 sector in 2014 and continuing strong growth in software development companies in most markets, increasing total revenue by 15 percent to $1.3 billion over the year. For TIN100 and 100+ companies this revenue is up 78 percent on 2010.

There has been a massive decline in South Island revenue due to the Christchurch earthquake. Revenue dropped by 40 percent thanks to a decline in some manufacturers including Tait Electronics, Scott Technology and Skope. Wellington growth also slowed, due to diminished growth in the IT services and support sector which has traditionally been a dominant market sector in the region. The Auckland region is ahead of the pack in terms of growth, with Hamilton coming in second.

Primary Sector Technology, growing by 10 percent to revenues of $789 million in 2014, is on its way to becoming the fourth $1 billion TIN100 revenue secondary sector.

Greg Shanahan TIN Managing Director said: “New Zealand Technology companies are pursuing global domination in a way we would never have imagined or talked about when we produced the first TIN100 Report in 2005. With 10 years of data it’s clear that the New Zealand Tech sector is heading in the right direction. Although it was the 17 companies with revenues over $100 million that delivered the bulk of the 2013-2014 increase, in 2014 we’ve had a record $52 million or eight percent growth for the smaller tech (TIN100+) companies.” He said that the ICT portion of the technology sector continues to perform well, but the manufacturing portion is now back in growth mode too.

TIN has identified several key themes for the tech sector over the last decade:

• Increasing interest from global investors e.g. Xero, Vend, AFT Pharmaceuticals
• Confidence to go after number one position in the market
• Confidence to pitch for the big jobs
• Confidence to invest heavily in R & D despite increased currency pressures
• Smaller often provincial manufacturers having confidence to successfully target global markets despite their size.

Using the accumulated data TIN also honoured a number of companies that have performed consistently well over the past 10 years:

TIN 10 Year Mavericks Award
Douglas Pharmaceuticals & Xero

TIN100 10 Year High Growth Award
Datacom

TIN100+ 10 Year High Growth Award
Ninja Kiwi

TIN100 10 Year Corporate Performance Award
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare