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Compac's award-winning sorting technology - Source: Compac
A produce sorter came out on the top of the pack at the NZ Hi-Tech Awards, walking away with two major prizes.
Compac Sorting Equipment won the NZ Hi-Tech Company of the Year as well as the Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year prize.
The judges, who described the company as the "Rolls Royce of its industry", said Compac's "laser-focussed priority on market-driven R&D" was a key reason for its success.
"Compac is a world class innovator, delivering 21st century technology that makes its agricultural customers, including those in New Zealand, more competitive," said the judges.
The Auckland-based company was formed in 1984 and employs over 100 full time staff.
Its equipment is used in over 20 countries.
Other winners
The awards, which were established in 1993, are run by a trust and supported by NZTE and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Biomatters, which develops software to speed up biological research, won the Microsoft Hi-Tech Emerging Company Award.
The Ministry of Science and Innovation's Start-up Award went to Christchurch-based Invert Robotics, which builds and operates wall climbing robots to perform high-precision tasks in high-risk environments.
Robert Bell of KlickEx took away the Maxnet Hi-Tech Young Achiever of the Year award for his work in a global transaction and foreign exchange system.
The Duncan Cotterill Innovative Hi-Tech Software product award went to Booktrack, who match sounds to text on mobile devices.
Eleven international judges sat on the panel at the awards ceremony in Auckland, including original Facebook investor and Paypal founder Peter Thiel, Google's director of engineering in New York Craig Nevill-Manning, and Cisco's senior vice president, Howard Charney.