Nelson Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 4 October 2023
Snap scales up, to open plant in Tāhunanui ANDREW BOARD
Nelson company Snap IT is opening a high-tech manufacturing plant in Tāhunanui, which will lead to more jobs says its founder and chief executive. Snap Information Technologies has operated in Nelson for almost 20 years and now specialises in creating cameras and accompanying software for fishing vessels. Founder and chief executive, Chris Rodley, says the company is poised to scale rapidly as the cameras provide an ability for fishermen to “tell a story” to the end customers of their fish, as well as ensuring compliance of regularity issues. He says Snap IT has recently signed a lease on the old King Salmon building on Bullen St, where they will build a manufacturing plant to build cameras and the other components needed to make them work. “We have approaching 40 staff in Nelson, and we will be adding more as part of this move. The amount of new people depends on how well we execute over the coming years, but it could be quite significant.” Chris says there is an opportunity to have cameras on 100,000 fishing vessels across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific over the coming years. Currently, they have cameras on 1200 fishing boats across nine countries and they have offices in Canada, the United States and Ireland. “We hope that our product will be used to
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Great Weekly MP Debate moderator Johny O’Donnell, far right, with from left; Labour MP Rachel Boyack, Green Party candidate Jace Hobbs, National Party candidate Blair Cameron and ACT MP Chris Baillie. Photo: Sara Hollyman.
Candidates grilled at Weekly debate KATE RUSSELL
Four Nelson candidates were put to the test at the Great Weekly MP Debate on Sunday evening. The debate was hosted by Nelson Weekly and its sister paper Waimea Weekly at McCashins Tap Room in Stoke. It was livestreamed through the Weekly’s Facebook page by local production company Be Seen More and was moderated
by Johny O’Donnell. Current Nelson MP Rachel Boyack, Green Party candidate Jace Hobbs, National’s Blair Cameron, and ACT MP Chris Baillie were instructed to steer away from party lines and speak from the heart about what they had to offer the Nelson electorate. Jace was clear that he wasn’t seeking the vote and instructed the crowd to vote for Rachel. Chris said the economy is
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“where we need to focus”. This was echoed by Blair, who said the economy is the “absolute and number one” thing in this election. “I’ve door knocked more than 4000 homes in Nelson and I’d say about 75 - 80 per cent of the households I speak to say it’s the cost of living and economy that they want us focused on and that they are really worried about,” he said. “I absolutely agree,” spoke Ra-
chel. “Inflation and the cost of living is one the toughest things for people right now.” Jace’s main point throughout the debate was that the wealthy should be taxed more. Chris, however, told the audience that we should put more trust in landlords and businesses to treat tenants fairly and set wage rates respectively.
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Architectural transformations. D e s i g n D i r e c t o r, D a v i d M a u r i c e
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