Jonathan Hill ( Jonno) has been appointed division manager of Hill Laboratories’ largest division, environmental.
Mr Hill joined the company immediately after finishing his studies at Canterbury University in 2005. He spent the first four years at Hill Labs in the analytical technology group of the environmental and food and bio-analytical divisions.
Here, he primarily developed methods on the company’s high-tech pesticide residue testing instruments.
The following two years, he spent time in an operational management role in the company’s food and bioanalytical division.
In December 2011, he moved to division manager, which he now occupies.
One of Mr Hill’s most recent successes was working with a team of people to develop new testing services and secure two contracts for the company.
The new contracts helped open new major markets for Hill Laboratories in both timber testing (quality control monitoring) and pesticide residue testing on exported apples.
Both contracts were strongly competed for and collectively totalled around $1m in annual revenue.
“The environmental division is our largest division, which services a diverse group of clients from different industries.
“An early priority for me has been spending time out of the office, meeting our clients and becoming more familiar with their respective businesses,” says Mr Hill.
“It’s also been great to hear first-hand from our clients about what Hill Labs does well and to get ideas about how we could improve.”
Mr Hill studied molecular biology and chemistry at the University of Canterbury and graduated with a PhD in organic synthetic chemistry.
Cawthron sells Hill its Marlborough lab
Hill Laboratories and the Cawthron Institute have signed a heads of agreement which will see Cawthron sell its Marlborough laboratory to Hill.
The sale is expected to be completed by the end of June 2012 following due diligence.
Cawthron’s Marlborough operation will transfer to Hill Laboratories, which will continue to provide the same services from the same premises in Grovetown Park, Blenheim. Included in the sale is Cawthron’s environmental chemistry testing, which is currently undertaken from the company’s Nelson laboratory.
For Hill Laboratories, the purchase provides an opportunity to strengthen core areas of its business – environmental and wine testing.
Hill Laboratories has recently expanded its business with the opening of a new wine lab in Christchurch.
Roger Hill, managing director of Hill Laboratories, says the acquisition of Cawthron’s wine testing expertise will help to expand Hill’s offering further to the industry.
“Hill Labs recently launched our new Vine to Vintage wine testing service from our new wine lab in Christchurch. We are now the only laboratory in New Zealand offering every test a winery requires – from vineyard to finished wine – under one roof.
Cawthron’s export certification testing expertise allows us to strengthen our services to our wine industry customers even further whilst providing us with an excellent location in Blenheim to provide these services from.
“Additionally, acquiring Cawthron’s environmental testing fits well with Hills, as it is one of our company’s core expertise,” says Mr Hill.
