Yesterday, Oritain head of strategic sales Sam Lind said the company - a global leader in using forensic science to determine product provenance of food, beverages, fibres and pharmaceutics - was driven to attract world-class people, from the board of directors down, for a world-class business with world-class customers.
In a statement, Sir John described Oritain as a stand-out business that exported a unique solution created by highly skilled New Zealanders.
"I get requests from incredible Kiwi entrepreneurs doing awesome things all over the world, and this was one I had to say yes to. I’m excited to lean in and contribute where I can to the exciting future of this Kiwi innovator."
Founded in 2008, Oritain applied forensic and data science to prove the origin of a product. Its science could pinpoint the exact area a product or raw material came from, within metres.
It protected the brands of New Zealand companies such as Silver Fern Farms, Sanford and Pyramid Valley wines alongside other global names such as Patagonia and Lacoste. Earlier this year, it opened its fifth global office, in Washington, DC.
Oritain chief executive Grant Cochrane said the company was "extremely honoured’’ its story and growth had attracted talent of the calibre of Sir John, the appointment effective from January 1.
“Sir John is not only a successful politician but also an experienced business leader whose guidance will be vital in Oritain’s next chapter of growth and success," he said.
Oritain was recently named supreme winner at The Grand Business South Awards in Dunedin, and also achieved success at the AmCham-DHL Express Success and Innovation Awards.
Known by its customers and industries, it was now trying to share some of that success a little more locally, having previously been "a bit humble about it’’, Dr Lind said.
That was driven by the need to continue to attract talent; attracting and keeping talent in Dunedin was a problem both Oritain and other businesses in the city had, he said.
Oritain wanted to attract and retain "the absolutely best talent’’ who were looking at the early stages of their career and how to be challenged as much as possible. The business had doubled during the past five to six years and it intended to keep doing that "as fast and as hard’’ as it could.
It had been a privilege to have seen the business grow from 15 people to 150 and it had taken a lot of hard work to get there. Success at business awards was like a distillation of those "years and years and hours and hours’’ of work.
It had not always been easy but the last couple of years had been transformational; there were big business supply chain problems, and awareness and concern around the integrity of supply chains and, within that, was a massive maturity of response.
Oritain went from 32 staff in March 2020 to 122 in 14 months and, while it was Kiwi at heart, Oritain had a global focus.
"We are there to support global problems. We’re trying to do something different and something global and something impactful,’’ he said.
It needed to be vibrant, agile and solutions-focused. The nature of its work was very serious and it felt a deep responsibility for that, he said.
About half the team were in New Zealand, mostly in its High St premises in Dunedin, while an IT team worked from Auckland. There were opportunities to work in the company’s overseas offices.
Dr Lind said he was "incredibly proud’’ of the people Oritain had attracted to be part of its story, and he wanted others to know its story and be excited about it. There was a leadership development programme as the company wanted to invest in its talent.
Oritain had been "amazingly successful’’ in the fashion and clothing industry and it was now looking at reinvesting in other areas where it could see attractive opportunities, including soft commodities, food, coffee, cocoa, animal protein and dairy.
It was also good timing. Not only was there awareness of ESG (environmental, social and governance) but there was also compliance starting to come in. There were also lots of concerns around greenwashing and about what sustainability meant and who policed it.
Oritain was looking to do more with the New Zealand wine sector and then the global wine sector, while it was also increasingly looking at opportunities in South America, he said.
