From the Desk of Peter Lord – CEO
It has been a busy and productive year for Hill Labs, with several important milestones that reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting customers with reliable, responsive and innovative laboratory services.
One of the highlights has been the successful establishment of our raw milk testing service from June. As the dairy season builds, sample numbers are now picking up, and it is encouraging to see this new capability already supporting the sector. This investment strengthens our ability to provide independent testing services across an important part of New Zealand’s dairy supply chain.
We have also continued to invest in software development, both for our customer-facing applications such as MyLab and Hilltop, and for our internal Laboratory Information Management System. More recently, our software team has been using AI-assisted coding tools, which is helping accelerate development and enhance functionality across our digital platforms.
Digital integration with customers remains a major initiative for Hill Labs. By reducing paper-based processes and simplifying administration for customers and our teams alike, we can make the testing process more efficient from the outset. Digital pre-registration of samples is a good example: it gives samples a head start by greatly increasing registration speed, which, of course, helps the lab and enables faster turnaround times.
Like many New Zealand businesses, Hill Labs has faced cost pressures in 2026. The Middle East conflict has contributed to increased costs across couriers, plastic containers, laboratory gases and transport. We have taken a considered approach to absorbing these increases and have not passed them through to customers as price increases or surcharges.
Despite these pressures, we have not slowed our long-term capital investment strategy. We continue to renew our instrument fleet and proactively replace laboratory instruments and assets before reliability has any impact on customer service or quality.
Ngā mihi,
Peter
