The Waikato-based Perry family will have benefited from the buoyant dairy industry through a significant stake in long-term dairy manufacturing sector investor Dairy Investment Fund.
But poor harvests in the honey sector may have dampened the Perry Group’s three-year-old venture, Pure Manuka Honey, which exports high UMF Manuka honey and honeycomb to China under its brand Three Peaks. It has also diversified into downstream apiary and Manuka land.
The Perry Group’s core businesses are in aggregates, metal protection, manufacturing and property development. Second-generation Simon Perry diversified the family into food distribution through the Perry International Trading Group, which aims to eventually export other premium New Zealand food products alongside honey.
His own investments include a 27.5% stake in Dunedin-based Aotea Electric and a jointly held 45% share of Boffo Sports, a super tee company whose other shareholders include former rugby and rugby league boots Daryl Halligan and Dan Carter.
Perry was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport and philanthropy in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List and chairs the family-owned group his father, the late Brian Perry, started from scratch 63 years ago.
Perry also chairs the 40-year-old Brian Perry Charitable Trust, which was started with a $100,000 donation from Brian and Peggy Perry and now gives away millions of dollars each year, mainly in the Waikato area. One of its key projects has been helping develop the Te Awa cycle/walkway that tracks 70km along the banks of the Waikato River.
Tiffiney Perry, Simon’s sister, is also a trustee and shareholder. An accomplished disabled athlete, she won gold in the female handcyclist category at the New York marathon in late 2016.