The Icehouse Makes a New Home in the South Island

The Icehouse is officially making a new home for itself in the South Island.

The Icehouse works with Kiwi businesses at any stage to help them grow and will be operating permanently in Christchurch from mid-October.

The Icehouse CEO Andy Hamilton says Canterbury is the fourth region The Icehouse will be operating from and is a key location in its regional expansion.

“We are excited to have a permanent presence in the South Island. Many business owners have travelled up to Auckland in the past to work with us and we appreciate this isn’t the easiest thing to do.”

“Being based in Christchurch means we can work with more business owners in a way that’s convenient for them while we also look to support more deeply our existing base of 250 Canterbury customers of our programmes since we started in 2001,” he says.

Andy Hamilton says the organisation sees it as the perfect time to start offering its services in a local capacity to South Islanders.

“Christchurch in particular is experiencing incredible change as it ramps up the rebuild. We see a number of exciting and growing businesses emerging as well as those who have been around for a long time ready to grow and step things up for the future,” he says.

Andy Hamilton says The Icehouse will work alongside local businesses to help them lift their performance and will offer expertise, networks and access to funding.

Driving the Icehouse activity in Canterbury will be a face familiar to many local business owners. Blair Cottam has more than 13 years’ experience helping businesses grow and is taking on the role of Canterbury Regional Manager as well as delivering programmes.

Prior to joining The Icehouse, Blair was a part of the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) where he worked one-on-one with businesses and spent a significant amount of time seconded to Recover Canterbury assisting earthquake affected business owners.

Blair says The Icehouse will be offering some of its existing programmes as well as some tailored options for business owners based in the South Island.

“By basing ourselves locally, we can offer business owners immediate access to experts and easier access to our wide reaching national and international network,” he says.

Blair says businesses in the region will benefit from this new injection of energy and resources and expects The Icehouse to have a positive impact on the local economy.

“The Icehouse has an overall goal to lift New Zealand into the top half of the OECD by 2020. This goal means a commitment to helping Kiwi businesses grow. So no matter what stage a business is at, we want to be involved to ensure it develops its capabilities and is operating at full potential,” he says.

The Icehouse will be kicking off its activity with a business growth seminar held at the BNZ Partners Centre on 22 October for owners of businesses turning over $750,000 - $3 million.