Strategic communications for The Horowhenua Company

The Horowhenua Company · Enterprise Drive · Levin Industrial Park · Strategic Communications · 2024

A complete case study, A3 council collateral, professional photography and stakeholder video for the $2.9M Crown-backed Levin Industrial Park development — strategic communications for The Horowhenua Company’s flagship regional economic development project.

We loved the video and it looked like we scripted it all. We presented to Council on the Enterprise Drive project — we showed the video and distributed the A3. They were very well received.Vicki Timpson & Catriona Finau McKay — The Horowhenua Company Ltd

The Horowhenua Company Ltd is the economic development company within the Horowhenua New Zealand Trust (HNZT) group, working alongside Horowhenua Development Ltd, Horowhenua District Council and local lines company Electra to deliver regional outcomes. Its flagship project — the Enterprise Drive / Levin Industrial Park — is a 13-hectare industrial development acquired by HDL in 2019 and accelerated by a $2.9 million Crown Infrastructure Partners grant in 2020 under the COVID recovery initiative.

By 2024 the park had attracted anchor tenants including Archives New Zealand, Thermosash, LT McGuinness, Carters, Komatsu, Advanced Electrical and Homestead Construction. The Horowhenua Company came to Obvious to consolidate that story into a single, evidence-rich communications package — a case study they could put in front of council, central government and the next wave of prospective businesses.

Producing the Enterprise Drive Case Study for Levin

By 2024, the development had become one of the more interesting regional economic development stories in the lower North Island — but the story was still scattered across council reports, individual investor conversations, and the heads of the people who had made it happen. The Horowhenua Company needed to consolidate it: one coherent, well-evidenced account, with the visual and video assets to make it persuasive at a council meeting and durable on the website.

Obvious was brought in to produce that package end-to-end. Not the brand identity itself (that lives with The Horowhenua Company’s existing design partner), but the case study and everything around it: stakeholder interviews, professional photography, the written case study document, A3 council collateral, and a produced stakeholder video.

Stakeholder interviews as the spine of the work

The case study runs on first-person voices from the people who actually delivered the park. We interviewed and filmed with:

• Melissa Hanson, Property and Development Manager at The Horowhenua Company — on the deliberate strategy of subdividing into large lots to attract significant footprints, and the $8.5M initial investment.
• David Rooker, Thermosash — on relocating from Wellington to a single state-of-the-art facility in Levin, and what affordable housing access in the region means for the next generation of staff.
• David Aldridge, LT McGuinness — on a $21M (rising to ~$32M) investment, anchor tenants including Komatsu, Carters and Advanced Electrical, and what the new Ō2NL motorway alignment means for North Island logistics.
• Chevy Tatana, Tatana Contracting — on being the main civil contractor laying services and roading from Bridge Street to Cambridge Street, and the local employment effect.
• Stephen Griffiths, Homestead — on a $27M investment attracting businesses from outside the region into Levin.

Their accounts anchored both the written case study and the produced video — first-person evidence rather than corporate description.

A photography library that gave the story credibility

The written case study and A3 collateral are only as strong as the visual evidence behind them. Over the project we built a library of around 50 professional photographs across the site — wide context shots, civil works in progress, the contracting and trucking activity that signals momentum, machinery, businesses operating on the new lots, and detail shots that ground every claim.

The library was used inside the case study, the A3 council deliverable, the stakeholder video, and on The Horowhenua Company’s ongoing communications. It was built to be reused.

Anchor tenants captured in the work

• Archives New Zealand — 4-hectare repository, chosen from a shortlist of 13 sites across the lower North Island.
• Thermosash — relocated from Wellington into a single state-of-the-art facility on the park.
• LT McGuinness — $21M+ invested, hosting Komatsu, Carters and Advanced Electrical as anchor tenants.
• Homestead — $27M invested, attracting national businesses to Levin from outside the region.

Outcomes

What this enables for The Horowhenua Company

• Council presentation, on the record. The Horowhenua Company presented to Horowhenua District Council using the video and A3 collateral — both were “very well received”.
• Investor and tenant conversations. The case study and photography library now serve as evergreen sales collateral for the next phase of the park.
• National storytelling. A clear, evidence-rich account of why the Enterprise Drive model works (HNZT + Electra joint venture, central government grant, council partnership) and what it has delivered to date.
• Communications infrastructure for the long run. A single coherent asset suite that anyone in the organisation can pick up and use — to present at council, brief a journalist, invite a prospective business to consider the region, or make the case for the next phase of investment.

Why this kind of work matters

Most regional economic development projects suffer from the same communications gap: the work is real, the numbers are real, but the storytelling is fragmented. The economic significance gets lost in council reports, press releases and individual conversations.

What Obvious produced for The Horowhenua Company was a single coherent asset suite that anyone in the organisation can pick up and use — to present at council, to brief a journalist, to invite a prospective business to consider the region, or to make the case for the next phase of investment. It’s communications infrastructure for a programme that has years more to run.

Working in regional development, public sector or infrastructure?

Obvious partners with regional development agencies, Crown entities, councils and iwi-related trusts across New Zealand to produce the kind of strategic communications that actually move money and momentum — case study documents, professional photography, stakeholder video and council-ready collateral, scoped as a single coherent package. If you run a regional development agency, a Crown entity, a council or a public-sector trust with a programme that deserves to be properly told, we’d love to talk.