Aside from Night 'n Day and its 46 franchises across the country, the other Otago companies featured in the 12th annual Fast 50 awards announced at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, in front of about 150 people, were Queenstown-based MedRecruit, natural health company Artemis, Crest Commercial Cleaning, with an early recognition award going to Wanaka-based merino company Mons Royale.
The Fast 50 national and regional awards, for growth over three years, were announced at simultaneous events in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland late yesterday.
Night 'n Day began with a sole family-owned shop in George St in 1983, with the franchises launched in 1991 and totalling 25, but culminated last year in a further 21-franchise North Island roll-out over eight weeks at Gull petrol stations.
Night 'n Day chief executive, Tony Allison, said after the presentation, status as a "growth" company had not been solely the focus, but also being flexible, having quality products, innovation and offering opportunities to franchisees was important.
"Being in the Fast 50 has been great to reflect on where we have been, but also to look at where we go to now," he said.
After the 21-site roll-out last year, Mr Allison said immediate plan was to focus on consolidation. Further domestic expansion was the longer-term plan for Night 'n Day.
To make the annual Deloitte Fast 50 rankings for 2012, companies had to achieve growth of at least 154%, but to make the Top 10 of the Fast 50, growth had to be at least 480%.
Deloitte Dunedin partner Mike Horne said it was fantastic to see Otago businesses continuing to perform and focus on growth at a time when general economic confidence levels were low.
"The focus to exceed clients' expectations means that for many companies, they have created the most powerful sales force a business could hope for," Mr Horne said.
During the past three years, the 2012 Fast 50 businesses were credited by Deloitte to have grown the New Zealand economy $637 million and created 1376 jobs.
Mr Horne said the Night 'n Day franchise was a unique family-run company with a well-marketed network of outlets around the country, having grown from a "niche student haunt to become a national franchise".
Mr Horne also highlighted Queenstown's MedRecruit, with its dual fastest growing service and also exporter awards, as having already appeared for an "impressive three years in a row" in the main Fast 50 index.
Nationally, leader of the Fast 50 programme, Deloitte partner Stephen Nichols, said the Pulse Utilities national win displaced last year's winner, Powershop, which challenged the status quo of the electricity industry.
"Both Pulse Utilities, and second-place PowerKiwi, clearly demonstrate that there is room for independent retailers to achieve extraordinary growth in the New Zealand electricity industry," he said in a statement.
He said the Fast 50 winners were "phenomenally focused" in several areas, including having a deeply rooted culture of values and integrity, customer focus and embraced collaboration with the right partners to assist them to "catapult ahead of the competition".
While not yet fitting the Fast 50 criteria, Wanaka-based merino underwear maker Mons Royale won the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise "Rising Star" award for businesses in the early start-up stages.
The winners
NZ 2012 Deloitte Fast 50
Winner: Auckland electricity retailer Pulse Utilities NZ; 2637% growth and also national fastest growing retail-consumer products.
2nd: Electricity retailer PowerKiwi; 1916% growth (overall Wellington winner).
3rd: Nelson's McCashin's Brewery; 1836% growth, and also national fastest growing manufacturer.
Otago 2012 Deloitte Fast 50
Winner: Dunedin-based Night 'n Day Foodstores; 952% growth and also Otago's fastest growing retail-consumer products business.
2nd: Queenstown-based MedRecruit; fastest growing service business and also fastest growing exporter in Otago and lower South Island.
3rd: Natural health company Artemis; Otago's fastest growing manufacturer.
4th: Crest Commercial Cleaning; Otago's fastest growing mature business (15-years +)
