Process innovation is at the heart of lifting New Zealand’s manufacturing performance. It’s where smart ideas turn into real improvements—streamlined systems, safer work, better use of technology, and continuous steps that make businesses stronger and more competitive. The Process Innovation Award recognises the teams and organisations that challenge the status quo and raise the bar for operational excellence.

Sponsor: Swell

Swell partners with New Zealand businesses to unlock funding that drives innovation, including support through tools like the R&D Tax Incentive. Their experience working alongside manufacturers gives them a close view of the sector’s creativity and resilience.

They describe manufacturing as one of the most innovation rich parts of the Kiwi economy—driven by natural inventiveness, fast problem solving, and a connected community that shares knowledge and supports improvement. Sponsoring this category is their way of shining a brighter light on the world class progress already happening across the country.

For Swell, recognising innovation is especially important during challenging times. Many businesses are still navigating uncertainty, but those choosing to invest, improve, and experiment now are shaping the future of New Zealand’s manufacturing capability. Their message to businesses considering entering this year: go for it. Even if you don’t win, the opportunity to tell your story, benchmark against others, and grow your professional network is invaluable.

For New Zealand’s future—and for Swell—a thriving manufacturing sector means high value jobs, export growth, and a more resilient economy built on practical ingenuity and continuous improvement.

2025 Winner: Breadcraft

Breadcraft’s experience demonstrates how meaningful process innovation can be—and how powerful external recognition is. Before winning, Breadcraft applied a three year strategy and believed internally that their lean, Six Sigma, and best practice journey was progressing well. The award confirmed that their work wasn’t just strong for the bakery sector—it was competitive against large, established heavy industries across New Zealand.

They describe the experience as the difference between a family praising a child’s abilities versus hearing the same praise from impartial outsiders. The recognition builds confidence even an existing strong internal culture, this has grown in bigger proportions.

Winning had a wide reaching impact across the business. It lifted confidence not only in the operations team but across production, sales, and leadership. It strengthened trust between teams and validated a structured three year transformation plan—proving they were further ahead than expected.

Breadcraft encourages applicants to enter with the right mindset: not just to win, but to benchmark, learn, and understand what best practice truly looks like. Being “in the room with the best,” they say, is valuable even without a trophy.

They believe strong applications have three things: a clear and integrated strategy, the ability to speak naturally about how best practice methods are used day today, and proof that improvement tools are embedded across the whole organisation—not just deployed as one off initiatives.

A year after winning, the most important outcome for Breadcraft was strengthened confidence. The award reaffirmed that their systems, strategy, and execution were cohesive, effective, and leading them in the right direction.

2026 Judges

We’re excited to announce the judging panel for this year’s Process Innovation Award. Joining us are four industry leaders whose experience spans strategy, operations, and transformation:

Chris Komatas – Partnerships, Globex Engineering Amos Breyfogle – Co-Founder, Pivot Innovation Sebastian Stoof – General Manager, MHM Automation Nick Prattley - Director, Swell

Each brings deep expertise and a passion for driving meaningful, scalable innovation. Their insights will help us identify the initiatives that are reshaping how we work and deliver value.

The Excellence in Process Innovation category showcases some of the sharpest thinking and most impactful improvement work in New Zealand manufacturing. With the support of Swell, the insight of experienced judges, and inspiring past winners such as Breadcraft, the 2026 awards promise to highlight the ingenuity, discipline, and teamwork that continue to strengthen Aotearoa’s manufacturing future.

Entries Open Monday 23 February.

Requests for Award Category Information Packs can be directed to [email protected]