In April 2003 edition of Unlimited Magazine, Company Directors Sue Wilkinson and Graham Dockrill feature as part of 11 Cool Kiwi Companies doing some hot stuff. Hairy Lemon is hitting hard as a company with imagination and flair!

The Article reads: HE WAS a typical schoolyard geek who left to become a clerk with Steel and Tube, became a branch manager, and then headed off to University at the age of 23 to complete a computer science degree. She was a mechanical engineering graduate just starting out on a post-graduate study. They met, fell in love, got married and bore a business together in the back bedroom. They called it Hairy Lemon. Meet 28-year-olds Graham Dockrill and Sue Wilkinson, whose three-and-a-half-year-old Christchurch web development company is heading for turnover of $1.2 million this year - more than 100% up on last year. They started out working shifts on one PC, creating websites for friends and contacts. Pretty soon they realised they needed to contract others with specialist skills, and there was nothing for it but to move the Lemon into the lounge. Before too long the lounge was outgrown and the offspring needed a new house. "At one stage we had five people - and the cat - working in the master bedroom," recalls Wilkinson. Now the bonny child has secured a spacious and airy office of its own on Christchurch's busy Riccarton Rd, and there's lots of room for expansion out the back. From here Wilkinson, Dockrill and a team of six (Lemon also has contractors in Dunedin and Carterton) do web design, develop interactive CD-Roms and write web-enabling software. Already close to 20% of Hairy Lemon's revenue comes from export work, and that will rise to 30% next year. By tapping into the network of Kiwis living and working overseas, it has won contracts in Japan, Ireland, Australia and Oregon. One of its key competitive advantages is price: "We have heard we were able to complete one Japanese contract for a fifth of the price it would have cost them locally - and we still did well out of it,)" Dockrill says. One of Lemon's more significant local projects has been the development of a website for the Westland District Council, which incorporates a content management system that allows council staff to make day-to-day changes in-house and from remote locations. A nifty and user-friendly feature of the site is the "fix-o-gram", which enables residents to use an online form to notify the council of problems like pot-holes and sewer leaks. The form is then sent on to the appropriate department for action. As the dedicated parents of a fast-growing young company, Wilkinson and Dockrill have been sure to set Lemon up with a caring godparent. Keith Cowan, education manager with Christchurch's Jade Software and leading light in Christchurch software cluster, has acted as mentor and friend since meeting the pair when they completed the Canterbury Development Corporation-run Hi-Tech Launch Platform for young businesses a year ago. "Keith keeps an eye on us. He skips through the bullshit and asks us the hard questions," says Dockrill. So, is there a sordid tale of student debauchery behind the intriguing name? Apparently not. "Before we started, we were having drinks with friends and the name Hairy Lemon came up. I remember saying if we ever have our own company that's what we'll call it. But it's a great icebreaker. People either love it or hate it." ---