Media Release 22 November, 2010

Flower Power!

Powerco to sponsor Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival

Powerco, one of New Zealand’s largest energy distributors, has signed a significant sponsorship agreement with the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival to help the Festival market itself both nationally and internationally.

The naming rights sponsorship means Powerco will help the Festival take itself to the next level, says Suzanne Porter, chief executive officer of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust which runs the festival.

“Approximately 75% of Festival visitors are from outside the Taranaki region—and we are enjoying an increasing number of Australian visitors,” says Ms. Porter.

“Through Powerco’s sponsorship, we will be able to fund a wider marketing campaign nationally and into east coast Australia in particular.”

Powerco Corporate Affairs Manager Neil Holdom says Powerco is proud to be involved with the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival as part of the Company’s commitment to supporting the communities it serves.

“One of Powerco’s core values is ‘Respect for the Environment’, and the festival is an excellent way to foster respect for the environment by encouraging people from all over the country to visit Taranaki and view some of the amazing gardens our region has produced,” says Mr. Holdom.

“Powerco looks forward to being involved in the festival and we have plans to help the event grow and develop to reach a wider audience and, in doing so, build on Taranaki’s reputation as a fantastic place to visit, live and work.”

“Powerco is a business which believes in investing in the communities it serves and in Taranaki we are involved with some great projects and feel the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival will be a great fit with our business and the other events and organisations we support.”

As one of New Zealand’s longest running garden Festivals, the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival has just completed its 23rd year, with a visitor survey showing the Festival receiving an overall satisfaction rating of 98% from visitors saying the festival was excellent, very good or good. This compares favourably to last year’s visitor survey, says Ms. Porter.

“The high satisfaction levels and garden visit numbers are due to the Festival’s continued positioning as a premiere New Zealand garden event,” says Ms. Porter.

“The Festival opens the gates to a selection of New Zealand’s best private and public gardens including Gardens of National as well as International Significance. There’s a wide variety of gardens ranging from small, inner city potager gardens, to art and Japanese gardens, to large and majestic country gardens among the line up.”

At 47%, almost half of all respondents in this year’s survey were making their first visit to the festival compared to 38% and 36% in the previous two years.

In perfect spring, sunny conditions, there were approximately 52,000 garden visits to the Festival’s 49 gardens during the 10-day Festival running from October 29 to November 7 this year.

A special feature of the Festival each year is a unique Landscape Design Project. This year the project was the largest living wall of plants ever created in New Zealand. Known as a “vertical garden”, the lush tapestry of plants has transformed the outside of the Taranaki Arts Festival office in New Plymouth into a living garden. The project is made possible by funding from the TSB Community Trust.

Powerco’s Business in Brief

• New Zealand's second largest natural gas distribution company by customer connections – around 100,000
• New Zealand's second-largest electricity distribution company by customer connections – around 315,000
• The largest electricity and second largest gas distributor in terms of network length – electricity 27,000 km, gas 5,400 km
• Energy distributor to the largest area in New Zealand (39,000 sq km)
• One of only two of the country's dual-energy distributors.
Powerco's energy distribution networks spread across the upper-central, central and lower areas of New Zealand's North Island. We serve some 415,000 consumers, representing 46% of the country's gas connections and 16% of its electricity connections.

ENDS

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