ZIWI USA, Inc.
10985 Cody Street Suite 110
Overland Park, KS 66210
24 May 2022
Every year, ZIWI USA’s team brings in its field sales team members who work across the United States as territory managers supporting our retail partners. It’s a weeklong seminar of sales strategy, team bonding, and planning for the upcoming year. However, ZIWI was unable to fulfill this tradition for the past two years due to COVID halting travel, so this past week was especially sweet for us to have our team members, Ray Lipscomb, Angela Shoultz, and Cindy Talbott join us at our Overland Park, Kansas based office.
In addition to our field sales team, we had the privilege of hosting New Zealand based team members, Richard Lawrence, Managing Director, and Harry Woods, Commercial Director, as well as members of our new ownership company, FountainVest, including Andrew Huang, Head of Cross-Border and Tech/Growth Investing, and Benjamin Boase, Senior Advisor. Our four out-of-country visitors jumped right into the myriad of activities we had planned during our sales rally and got to interact with team members and see operations in real-time.
The summit started with the sales team diving right into sessions in reporting on their regions, discussing key account and growth strategies, and overall health as well as strategic planning for the future of ZIWI. On that Wednesday, May 18th, managers from sales, marketing, eCommerce, and operations presented achievements of the team over the past fiscal year and highlighted strategies and opportunities for future operations to our New Zealand partners. To end a busy day of strategizing, the team hit TopGolf for a night of fun and friendly competition.
On Thursday we welcomed our FountainVest team to town while at our annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Hereford House in Overland Park, Kansas. The team enjoyed a great meal together while employees were recognized for their achievements over the past year, including the following awards:
Employee of the Year: Stacy Fulkerson, Office Manager
Cross Functional Team Member of the Year: Tyler Maneth, Vice President of Marketing
Outstanding Leader: Mary Helen Horn, President & Executive Director
K.I.W.I. Values:
Kindness (Manaaki): Hannah Krieg, Customer Care Specialist
Integrity (Pono): Coral Fallon, Operations Coordinator
Will (Pūkeke): Amy Pearson, Administrative Assistant
Ingenuity (Auahatanga): Cindy Talbott, Territory Manager
Sales:
Sales Top Dog: Sebastian Bruno, eCommerce Manager & Jen Batisto, Key Account Manager
Wrapping up the week with a bang, Friday was all hands-on deck with a wealth of activities. The afternoon started off with all team members, including our eager-to-help visitors, picking up trash at local parks. Inspired by the Māori culture of New Zealand, here at ZIWI we believe in being good Kaitiaki or guardians of the land, sea and its creatures - not just for today but for future generations. Embedding ourselves in this mission and being stewards of environmental helpfulness in our local communities is a facet of our company’s culture. After an afternoon of beautifying our neighborhood, we took off to Field Day, where we broke off into teams evoking some friendly competition in games like name that tune, obstacle courses, charades, ring toss, and more. It was a tight race between teams, but a great foster of laughter and team bonding in the end!
Our teams were immensely grateful for the week we got to spend all together – an even more meaningful experience after knowing the separation COVID provided for a couple of years. After a week of hard work mixed in with lots of fun, the ZIWI team is charged up to head into our new fiscal year with drive, purpose, and many new and exciting feats coming down the pipeline.
About ZIWI
ZIWI, the global leader and innovator in air-dried pet nutrition, was founded with a vision to bring joy and peace of mind to pets and their guardians. Their award-winning high meat recipes are proudly handcrafted in New Zealand in their own kitchens by a bunch of passionate Kiwis (New Zealanders). Inspired by the nutrition of raw diets, while offering the convenience and safety of dry foods, ZIWI Peak air-dried is simple and all-natural, with no artificial preservatives, additives, growth promotants, or antibiotics. Usable as a treat, topper, or complete & balanced meal, ZIWI’s palatability and naturally sourced health benefits help keep your pet happy and healthy.
ziwipets.com | Peak Nutrition without Compromise