United Machinists – Winners of the Otago Business Awards for Excellence in Manufacturing and Technology!

Recently, Westpac held the Otago Business Awards. United Machinists was named a finalist alongside Scott Technology, a robotics and process machinery company, and Rocket Werkz, a gaming manufacturer, both of which are based from Dunedin. These two businesses scream excellence in manufacturing and engineering, and we ourselves were not expecting to win given the calibre of the competition.

Low and behold, at a complete and utter shock to ourselves, we were crowned the winners! It was surreal that we were winners as we didn’t think we stood any chance against Scott Technology and Rocket Werkz. The team is absolutely stoked, and the workshop is still buzzing. We feel validated for all the hard work the team has been putting in recently. It is incredibly humbling for my parents, the original founders of United 44 years ago, to be getting rewarded for their achievements.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention my wife Sarah who won the Otago Future Business Leader Award! Sarah has started working more closely in United in recent months as Commercial Director. She is heavily involved in the startup, innovation and investment scene, as Chair of Startup Dunedin and founder of consultancy and angel investment firm Immersion Ventures. She’s been a big part of our strategic planning and growth to date, and I’m really looking forward to having her more involved in 2019.

It’s great that United has been recognised for our achievements in the sector, but we will not stop at this award. We will continue to push manufacturing, innovation and technology boundaries. We have recently purchased a new CMM (coordinate measuring machine), which allows us to have precision measuring for our parts and products. We are the only contract machine shop to use Top Solid (a CAD-CAM software system).

We have recently brought on our new resident import, Giovanni, who comes all the way from Italy and is our new Top Solid expert. We are invested in development pathways for our staff and we have committed to significant capital expenditure in purchasing new machinery over 2019 and 2020. All of these points ensure that we are providing the best quality and the best technology for our customers and clients.