Business development | Deloitte Fast 50
New Zealand’s best businesses Voyager Internet takes top ranking on 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 New Zealand’s fastest growing businesses is Aucklandbased Voyager Internet, a business-focused full service telecommunications company. Voyager Internet took the number one ranking on the 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 with a phenomenal 1,391 percent growth. Online motor vehicle sales company 2 Cheap Cars (1,294 percent growth), fund manager Pie Funds Management (1,269 percent), cloudbased retail software platform Vend (1,098 percent) and men’s clothing retailer I Love Ugly (1,087 percent) rounded the year’s top five. The annual Deloitte Fast 50 index ranks businesses experiencing rapid revenue growth over three years across a range of sectors, including manufacturer, technology, services, retail and consumer products, exporters and mature business. The index sets the benchmark for high growth businesses in New Zealand. The threshold for entry into the Fast 50 was the highest it has ever been at 201 percent, and the top five companies on the index all had three-year growth rates in excess of 1,000 percent. The winners of the 2014 Deloitte Top 200 Awards were announced as: Most Improved Performance Tourism Holdings
Best Growth strategy - Delegat Group
NZ companies in the top 100
Excellence in Governance - Fletcher Building
Rank Company
Growth (%)
23
Voyager Internet
1391
30
Vend
1098
31
I Love Ugly
1087
46
Touchcast
805
52
Sush Mobile
667
Diversity Award – Bank of New Zealand
53
Anagenix
666
Executive of the Year- Simon Challies (Ryman Healthcare)
54
Volpara Solutions
663
59
Resolve Technology
605
Company of the Year- Air New Zealand.
79
LeapThought
480
Deloitte CEO, Thomas Pippos unreservedly congratulated all of the Top 200 winners, saying he continued to be impressed with the level of leadership and vision in New Zealand business.
85
Mesynthes Ltd
458
91
Pure SEO
434
93
Unleashed Software
427
Young Executive of the Year - Michael Lewis (New Zealand Post) Chairperson of the Year - Tony Carter (Air New Zealand and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare) Visionary Leader Award – Bruce Plested (Mainfreight)
“The high level of excellence demonstrated at these awards should give New Zealand great confidence in our business leaders,” he said. “After 25 years of honouring our business heroes, and despite ongoing global and domestic uncertainties, the vision and ability for our top companies to succeed is stronger than ever.”
51 Kiwi companies make the Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 Fifty one New Zealand technology companies have been included in the 2014 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index, tying
the record for Kiwi companies achieved in 2009 and outpacing 2013’s 40 companies. Twelve are ranked in the top 100. The index ranks the top 500 tech businesses according to their revenue growth over the past three years and sets the standard for high growth technology businesses in the Asia Pacific region. Leading the list of New Zealand businesses is this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 winner Voyager Internet, ranked 23rd on the regional index with an impressive 1,391 percent growth. It is followed by cloud-based retail software platform Vend and men’s clothing retailer I Love Ugly, which come in 30th and 31st respectively.
The 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 by region Auckland and Upper North Island Voyager Internet (1), 2 Cheap Cars (2), Pie Funds Management (3), Vend (4), I Love Ugly (5), Partners Life (7), Mad Group (8), Sush Mobile (9), LeapThought NZ (10), Mesynthes (12), Pure SEO (13), Just Cabins (14), Milford Asset Management (17), Straker Translations (18), Bookme.co.nz (20), Switch Utilities (24), Young and Shand (25), Refresh Renovations (28), Cooper and Cooper (29), Snakk Media (33), Vibe Communications (34), EROAD (35), Zyber (40), Online Asset Partners (43), Giles Civil (45), Meadowlark (46), The Collective (47), Onceit (48), Pita Pit New Zealand (49), Protempo (50) Central North Island MEA Mobile (15), Mavis and Co. (16), Cobra Labs (22), LayerX Group (27), Findatruckload (30), BCD Group (41) Wellington and Lower North Island Touchcast (6), Alphero (31), Flight Coffee (39), Kowtow Clothing (42), Pic’s Peanut Butter (44) Canterbury and Upper South Island Chemsafety (11), ENGEO (19), Enable Networks (21), Mike Pero Real Estate (23), EBOS Group (26), Trineo (32), Buildtech Residential (38) Otago and Lower South Island Skevington Contracting (36), South Pacific Fire Protection (37) For the full Deloitte Fast 50 index, go to www.fast50.co.nz.
Do you understand your numbers? It may be a cliché but it is indisputable - cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. It doesn’t matter how remarkable your product or service is or how much market hype and demand exists, if you don’t manage your business cash flow, the outcome can be terminal. What is cashflow?
Cash flow is the movement of cash in and out of a business over time and it is the ‘time’ element of cash flow that often causes the most problems. While, over a long period of time, cash inflow should exceed cash outflow, there may be specific points in time where money is tight and pressure comes on the cash reserves of the business. Take for example, a business that closes down for three weeks over the Christmas/New Year period. Employees need to be paid holiday pay during the shutdown period and overheads such as leases for premises, plant and equipment continue to be payable. Cash will normally continue to flow in while the business is closed 28 March 2015
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as customers who purchased on credit in the previous month(s) pay on the 20th of the month following purchase.
statements prepared for income tax purposes record the profit the business has made during the year.
The cash crunch will come in January and February when there is reduced inflow from customer accounts due to the lack of production or sales, and therefore invoicing, in December and January. Wages and overhead still need to be paid and, in addition, GST and provisional taxes are payable on the 15th of January, followed closely by PAYE on the 20th of January. It can be a stressful time of the year from a cash perspective.
Profit however is not necessarily a good indication of how healthy the cash flow of the business is. Businesses may be profitable yet still face cash flow difficulties. Profit doesn’t take into account elements such as capital expenditure which are often frequently required to keep plant and machinery up to date and efficient. Profit also:
Likewise, if your business is a seasonal business, with say peak sales in December for Christmas presents, or in spring and winter for the new season’s clothes. To have stock on hand to meet those seasonal peak sales you need to have produced or purchased stock in advance. This means that you have paid out money for stock but you have not yet received the cash in for sales.
Profit does not necessarily equal cash flow Most businesses visit their accountant at least once a year to have annual financial statements and income tax returns prepared. The financial
• Includes all sales revenue, irrespective of whether or not its been collected from your customers • Includes all expenses related to the accounting period, irrespective of whether or not they have been paid • Does not include all purchases as you may have paid for stock that has not yet been sold and so it isn’t included in your profit calculation. Businesses can therefore be fooled into thinking all is well because profit is high, only to find that customers haven’t been paying on time or they have a large cost tied up in stock – meaning cash is tight.
It is good practice for businesses to forecast the flow of cash on a monthly basis throughout the year (or in some cases weekly for say the next three months if cash is particularly tight) to pinpoint when the business expects to suffer low cash balances so proactive measures can be taken to build up cash reserves or ensure finance facilities will be available from its bank. AT
What is cash flow? Cash outflows • Paying the bills • Paying wages • Buying fixed assets • Meeting lease commitments • Paying interest • Paying taxes Cash inflows • Collecting money from customers • Obtaining loans from the bank • Receiving funds from owners • Receiving interest • The difference is net cash flow