The building market gets hammered in a recession. The number of consent requests is 50% down on a year ago and builders everywhere are feeling the strain, as developers and budding house owners choose to wait out the worst of the downturn.

But Climate Coatings’ business development manager Mark Sixton says in some ways the recession couldn’t be better for his company. “It’s allowed us to get time with people who in the past have just been too busy.” Builders and developers have now got time to look at different products on the market, and are actively interested in finding ones that save them money and give them a point of difference, he says.

Spun out of Carter Holt Harvey’s i2B (ideas to business) incubator several years ago, Climate Coatings produces factory-finished, powder-coated engineered wood and plasterboard products. The products are more cost effective and more environmentally friendly than painting products on site, says Sixton. When the recession was signalled early last year, Climate took a good look at its costs and the value proposition for each of its products. “And we’ve really gone out and sold that story. So while there’s less of the pie out there, we’re getting a bigger piece of it.”

Turnover for the Auckland-based company is forecast to be up more than 30% this year and it has employed two extra senior staff members, taking total numbers to 11. More importantly, says Sixton, the time Climate has had to educate its target market should pay dividends when the recession finally ends.

Climate’s green tag is also a selling point, as regulations tighten, consumers become more discerning, and industry looks for a way to save resources (and thus costs) while telling a good tale at the same time.

Firmly riding the green wave is valve engineer and manufacturer Emech Control. “The recession has caused a whole bunch of businesses to put in energy and water management programmes to save costs,” says CEO Marcel van Dijck.

Emech’s valves are designed to optimise the use of energy and water through precision controls. But it’s more than that, says van Dijck: the market for green technology is a growth market, recession or no recession. It is driven by tightening regulations, by a growing population, and by resources, such as water, becoming scarcer and more expensive. US meat processor National Beef was able to save 12% of its plant water (380 million litres a year) using Emech’s valves, a saving worth US$1.5 million for each plant. If that’s not a selling point, what is, asks van Dijck.

On a six-month basis, Emech’s sales have increased by 30% and van Dijck says he’s also looking for extra staff to capitalise on the growing market. “I think it’s a fantastic time. I can’t keep up … I can only see it growing.”

Wellington software company Trade Mobile is another Kiwi outfit brimming with enthusiasm despite the recession. It has launched an online marketplace called Voeveo.com for transferring digital content to mobile phones. Initially reluctant to talk growth figures, exuberant CEO James O’Hare eventually said that his firm was on the brink of being a $100 million company in just a few years.

Trade Mobile is targeting the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) market or mobile phone network resellers. O’Hare says there are more than 423 MVNOs in the marketplace today, yet less than a third have any sort of content provision portal for their customers. Each could be worth $1 million a year to Trade Mobile, he says.