Stories
In-depth features, founder profiles, and business stories from across New Zealand. Real journeys, real impact.
tech
Built Here, Sold There: Inside New Zealand’s Game Studios
A New Zealander made one of the biggest games of the decade, walked away from it, and came home to build a studio in Dunedin. His story is the whole country’s games industry in miniature: build something the world wants, then decide whether to keep it or sell it.
Noteworthy Staff2 weeks ago
business
Charleez Chicken & Chips: The National Brand With No Stores of Its Own
Drive through provincial New Zealand and you will pass the Charleez sign in a dairy, a superette, a service station, a café or a bakery. None of those shops belongs to Charleez. That is the whole idea.
Noteworthy Staff3 weeks ago
community
How a Volunteer Group Helped Win New Zealand's 1.5-Metre Rule
Most road-rule changes arrive without a face attached. New Zealand's new 1.5-metre passing rule has one: an Auckland father who nearly gave up cycling for good.
Noteworthy Staff3 weeks ago
business
How Graeme Hart Made His Money and Became New Zealand's Richest Man
He left school at sixteen and became the wealthiest New Zealander who has ever lived. Graeme Hart made his fortune buying dull, essential businesses that the rest of the market had stopped paying attention to.
Noteworthy Staff4 weeks ago
business
Off the Map: The Kiwi Businesses Google Barely Shows
The good local operators have not vanished. They are still busy, still the first name a local gives you. They have just become hard to find for anyone who is not already a local.
Noteworthy Staff30 Jul 2026
business
OCC Apparel: The Ethical Apparel and Merchandise Partner for New Zealand Brands
Buying one ethical tee is easy. Buying five hundred, and proving the label holds up, is a different job. OCC Apparel has spent twenty-two years, and a careful set of brand partnerships, learning to do exactly that.
Noteworthy Staff23 Jul 2026
business
Allbirds: The Kiwi Wool Shoe That Took On the World
A wool trainer from a Kickstarter, built on New Zealand merino and a Kiwi footballer’s idea, became a six billion dollar Wall Street company. Then it had to learn the harder half of the sustainability lesson.
Noteworthy Staff22 Jul 2026
business
Who is Les Mills? How an Auckland Olympian's Gym Became a Global Brand
Les Mills was the Auckland Olympian who opened a gym in 1968. He died on 29 June 2026, aged 91. The global brand that carries his name is what his family built from that room.
Noteworthy Staff17 Jul 2026
business
Made Everywhere but Here: New Zealand's Quiet Billionaires
New Zealand's largest fortunes were built offshore by its most private people. What that says about the country depends on how you read the silence.
Noteworthy Staff6 Jul 2026
food-tech
Replace the Cow or Build on It: What New Zealand Food-Tech Learned
Three food-tech founders, three bets on how to change what New Zealand sells the world. One broke, one held and one bet on the movement itself.
Noteworthy Staff5 Jul 2026
business
Control, Not Scale: Six New Zealand Women Who Redefined Success
The default measure of success is scale. Six NZ women defined it as control instead, from building an empire to keeping a label deliberately small.
Noteworthy Staff4 Jul 2026
tech
Boring on Purpose: The NZ Founders Who Built Moats Out of Regulation
New Zealand celebrates consumer app heroes. Its most durable tech is built by founders who embed in regulated systems nobody notices.
Noteworthy Staff2 Jul 2026
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