Entrepreneurship: Kiwilifter to Bdét to the Toru Roll
Billie Jo Hohepa-Ropiha & Thomas Hohepa
“Dad was an inventor,” says Billie Jo Hohepa-Ropiha, recounting her childhood in the Northland settlement of Moerewa. It’s a US rust belt-style factory town, full of Māori families whose multiple generations have lived and died within a 5km radius of the AFFCO meat processing plant for the past hundred years. Childhood was a lesson in sustainability for Hohepa-Ropiha and her family, but this wasn’t unusual in the small Māori town where DIY was often the only option.
Hohepa-Ropiha didn’t always plan to start her own business. After graduating from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Arts in screen and media studies in the late 1990s, she travelled and worked in Japan teaching English before moving back home to begin a career. It was during a trip to a central Auckland bookstore that she discovered what that career would be.
Somewhat surprisingly, this led her on to a successful career in broadcast media. For years, she spent her time in front of the camera as a journalist for TVNZ and Māori Television where the skills she was taught as a kid about solving problems with creativity came in handy.
Now, after three years with BDèt on the market, Hohepa-Ropiha is making some progress towards getting the right people onboard. She’s been communicating with Auckland Council’s water company Watercare from the start, having learned how much infrastructural damage occurs each year due to people flushing wet wipes, not to mention the health risks to employees.