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Simon Henry’s chemical manufacturing company, DGL Group. (Image: Tina Tiller)
Simon Henry’s chemical manufacturing company, DGL Group. (Image: Tina Tiller)

BusinessMay 12, 2022

What does Simon Henry’s DGL actually do?

Simon Henry’s chemical manufacturing company, DGL Group. (Image: Tina Tiller)
Simon Henry’s chemical manufacturing company, DGL Group. (Image: Tina Tiller)

The company formerly known as ‘Dangerous Goods Logistics’ has been all over the news since its CEO’s offensive comments about Nadia Lim went public. What does it actually do, and who even is Simon Henry?

DGL Group Simon Henry’s “sincere and formal” apology finally reached Nadia Lim a week after his offensive remarks about the MasterChef New Zealand winner and My Food Bag co-founder were published by the NBR.

The email apology – all two sentences’ worth once formalities are removed – is the latest development in a story that’s captured national and international headlines, and engulfed Henry’s chemicals manufacturing company in controversy. The price of its shares on the local and Australian stock exchanges plummeted after NBR published its interview with Henry, wiping nearly $300 million off its value. One leading Australian-based DGL customer, Ixom, has raised concerns, fund managers have blacklisted the company, even the prime minister has weighed in.

It’s a lot of public scrutiny for a public company that had been privately owned for 21 of its 22 years of existence. So what does DGL do, how has it grown and who even is Simon Henry?

“Dangerous Goods Logistics”

DGL is short for “Dangerous Goods Logistics” – the company’s former name and an apt description of its work. It’s been around since 1999, when Henry entered the chemicals manufacturing industry after stints in commercial property investment and beekeeping. DGL’s founder envisioned a fully integrated, end-to-end business that could manufacture, transport and store, and dispose of or recycle potentially dangerous and reactive chemicals and goods.

Customers come from industries such as agriculture, water treatment, mining, construction, automotive, food, pharmaceutical, lead smelters, plastic recyclers, galvanisers, manufacturing, home and garden, and chemical suppliers. The Spinoff asked several New Zealand businesses that might conceivably use DGL’s services if they were customers, what their views were of Henry’s comments and whether they were reconsidering their relationship. Most confirmed they weren’t customers and left it at that. But a spokesperson for Landcorp, a state-owned enterprise operating farms nationwide, said Henry’s comments have been “rightly, widely and robustly criticised”.

DGL is short for ‘Dangerous Goods Logistics’, the business’s previous name. (Screengrab: dglinvestors.com)

Organic growth, strategic acquisitions

After more than two decades as a privately owned business, DGL went public in May 2021 with an initial public offer (IPO) to raise $100 million. But listing on the local and Australian stock exchanges hasn’t changed DGL’s strategy of chasing organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

According to the IPO prospectus, DGL’s foundational asset, Chempro, the chemical logistics site in Wellington that Henry bought in July 1999, was used to service customers needing safe and compliant chemical supply chain management. Over the next two years, it started providing warehousing and distribution for “marquee” customers Ixom and Shell. Eleven years later, it acquired an Aussie-listed company that specialised in recycling and treatment services. Further investment in transport and treatment capabilities marked the period up to 2017, and by 2018, it had acquired the Dangerous Goods Logistics business in Australia, changing its brand and name to DGL Group.

Since May 2021, the company has gone on a spending spree, investing just under half its capital raise on seven more acquisitions. Its half-year net profit was up 185% to $8.5m, and it expects to have earned $65m on sales of $345m for the year ended June 30. Commenting on the earnings upgrade, Henry said DGL’s performance continued to exceed expectations.  

As of February, DGL employed over 480 people and operated a trans-Tasman network of more than 50 sites serving about 3,000 customers. It stored 140,000 tonnes of chemicals, had the capacity to process 180,000 tonnes of waste and could manufacture 280,000 tonnes of chemicals.

Keeping life ‘extremely simple’

Described as DGL’s “sole shareholder”, and the company’s only New Zealand-based director on its all-Australian board, Henry earns $662,000 a year as chief executive. Post-capital raise, he retained his majority parcel of shares, which he calculated was worth $700m at the time NBR spoke with him. Based on Wednesday’s share price, more than $140m has been wiped off his shares since his comments were published.

Previous media coverage has largely been positive, and often tied to DGL’s business development and acquisitions. Henry’s behaviour has come under scrutiny before, however, with NBR reporting the story of a woman who experienced harassment by him – an accusation he said was unjustified – around the time of DGL’s IPO. Other stories have noted Henry’s original surname is Whimp, and that he’s the brother of Bernard Whimp, a Christchurch businessman whose practice of making lowball share offers to investors in listed companies has attracted the attention of regulators in the past. 

A 2021 profile for NBR’s List, a ranking of New Zealand’s wealthiest businesspeople, reported that Henry grew up in the Canterbury town of Rangiora. A former honey exporter, he became interested in property after the 1987 sharemarket crash and after buying commercial properties in Christchurch and Wellington, he moved north to Tāmaki Makaurau where he snapped up more properties, plus Chempro. Henry reportedly enjoys playing tennis in Parnell, the Auckland suburb in which he lives, and is a substantial donor to Hōhepa Canterbury, a trust supporting adults with intellectual disabilities. Henry prides himself on keeping his life “extremely simple”, saying: “I don’t have any complexities, I’m just free to work and think and have fun.”

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Hole in One
Lake Taupō’s Hole is getting an upgrade many people don’t want. (Photo: Supplied / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

BusinessMay 12, 2022

‘Abhorrent’, ‘hideous’: What’s going on at Lake Taupō’s Hole in One Challenge?

Hole in One
Lake Taupō’s Hole is getting an upgrade many people don’t want. (Photo: Supplied / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

Expansion plans for the popular Taupō tourist attraction have been abandoned after public outcry. Now, like a wayward tee shot, everything’s up in the air.

It was supposed to be a huge upgrade, one designed to make an already popular tourist destination even more attractive. A cafe would churn out coffee and pastries, a covered ticketing office would keep staff safe from the elements, public viewing spots would offer grand views of Lake Taupō. More people would smack golf balls at a pontoon in the slim hopes of landing a miracle shot and joining the elite group of just eight who have ever claimed the $10,000 prize.

After that, a second stage of upgrades would take things even further, to include an events space, an education and visitor centre, and offer access to the lakefront, where paths and a floating dock would enhance “the amazing waterfront and walkways Taupō has to offer”. The architect’s designs show a structure jutting out from the cliffside, all clean lines, wood paneling, crisp concrete, modern and minimalist.

That’s a million miles from the current incarnation of Lake Taupō’s Hole in One Challenge, where six fake turf tees have been plonked on a clifftop, alongside a fence, an umbrella, a few fluttering flags and an ageing bus covered in branding. As for that pontoon everyone’s aiming for, it’s so old no one even knows its age. The whole set-up has barely changed in the past 30 years.

Now, after a major public backlash, expansive upgrade plans for the tourist attraction are up in the air like a wayward tee shot. Where they land is anyone’s guess.

Hole in One
Expansion plans at the Hole in One experience in Taupō have been scaled back. (Image: Supplied)

A man named “Digger” first dug up this dream. It was 1993, and he was enjoying a beer in a local pub when he started sketching some loose plans on the back of a beer coaster. Those plans, for a hole-in-one competition teeing off from a Lake Taupō clifftop and aiming toward a floating turfed pontoon, quickly became one of the region’s most popular attractions, with a legacy almost as integral to Taupo’s tourism appeal as DeBretts hot pools and the Huka falls.

When Taupō mayor David Trewavas wanted to announce the city’s re-opening after recent Covid lockdowns, he did it from a Hole in One tee. “We’re back in action,” he declared before hacking his shot straight into the drink.

These days, Hole in One Challenge is “looking a bit shabby,” admits the site’s business manager Zane Kitchen. On weekends and in summer, the attraction’s most popular times, crowds spill out across the footpath, and queues block pedestrian access. “If four mates are walking down the road, then they’ll all have a crack,” says Kitchen. “They’ll turn it into a challenge between themselves.”

Hole in One
An artist’s impression of a reimagined Hole in One Challenge. (Photo: Supplied)

It’s been this way since the mid-90s. Like the thousands before them, everyone who pays $25 for a bucket of 30 balls is taking a punt on winning the challenge’s ultimate $10,000 prize. Land one of your balls on the pontoon 102 metres away and you’ll score another shot. Get it into the blue or white holes and you’ll score vouchers for fishing trips and bungee jump experiences. That happens fairly regularly: already this year around 40 of those have been given away.

But the hole everyone is aiming for is marked by a red flag. Thanks to the downwards slope of the green around that hole, it’s a much harder shot to hit. Kitchen says he hasn’t even come close. “You’ve got to get a direct shot,” he says. “The only way to get it in is on the full, not bouncing or rolling it in. That’s what makes it so hard.”

Only eight people have ever done it. In summer, some 7,000 balls are collected by divers from the water underneath the pontoon every day.

Hole in One
The hole with the red flag is hardest to hit. (Photo: Supplied)

The last person to win $10,000 was in August 2020. Kitchen would like it to be won more often, at least once a year. “You do get some customers that are skeptical about whether it’s possible,” he says. “Having a more recent winner helps our cause on that front.”

Despite the degree of difficulty, Hole in One remains extremely popular, attracting locals, tourists and anyone passing through Taupō who wants a quick break and a dopamine hit. “We get good golfers through, and people who have never held a club before,” says Kitchen. Even closed borders and Covid-19 lockdowns couldn’t dent its popularity. “On a nice day, it’s the most scenic golf hole in New Zealand.”

Why has Hole in One stood the test of time? “It’s quite unique,” says Kitchen. “There’s nowhere else in New Zealand where you can go hit a golf ball into a lake, I guess.”

“Hideous” is how one submitter described the plans. “Vandalism” is another. One read: “No. Just no.” When Taupō District Council called for public submissions on Hole in One’s two-stage expansion plans, it caused an outcry rarely seen in the otherwise calm tourist trap that is Taupō.

Almost every single one of the 178 submissions was negative. They said things like, “Don’t block off the beautiful views of our lake!” and, “I find the proposal most abhorrent”. One called it “a black day in the history of Taupō”.

Even business owners were up in arms, despite the extra patronage an improved golfing experience might bring. Increased traffic and pollution was a concern. A nearby motel owner told Stuff it would “annihilate our view”. That sentiment was echoed by many of the public submissions. “No money is worth those views,” one said. “That’s what makes Taupō so special.”

Hole in One
Expansion plans for Lake Taupō’s Hole in One attractions have been scaled back. (Image: Supplied)

Kitchen believes the plans set off fears that it would open the door to multiple lakeside expansions. “There was a little bit of kickback basically around putting a building that close to the lake,” he says. “I think there’s a bit of fear that if one building pops up, where will it end?” Others thought it was too bougie and didn’t stay true to Hole in One’s rustic origins. “There’s a bit of thought out there: ‘What’s wrong with it as it is?'”

The outcry led to a rethink. Now, Taupō Moana Group Holdings, the owners of Hole in One, have been forced to scale their upgrade plans right back. Stage two plans have been scrapped, as have the visitor centre and events space. What’s allowed is minimal: a small kiosk can sell snacks, with one toilet providing amenities. The plans will now go through a resource consent process. Will the upgrades happen before Hole in One’s 30th birthday next year? Only time will tell.

But there is one small piece of good news: a lease has been granted for another 15 years. That’s 15 more summers of budding golfers grabbing a club and having a swing, and, possibly, a few more people being added to the elite eight who have scored a $10,000 hole-in-one. “It’s a pretty fun place to be,” says Kitchen. He only started in December, and loves the job so much he may not return to his old career in accounting. “You never have a bad day down there.”

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