Supreme win caps remarkable five years for Kylie Dorr

Kylie Dorr (center)  receiving her award for  Supreme Winner of the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards at Parliament from NZI’s Christina Chellow (right) and Kylie’s supporter and mother Sandy Dorr (Left).

Kylie Dorr admits she was in shock when her name was called as the Supreme Winner of the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards.

The owner of Southern Reproductive had already taken out the Emerging Enterprise category at the awards before being named the overall winner at a gala dinner in Parliament’s Banquet Hall on July 23.

“Honestly, I was absolutely in shock,” Dorr said.

“It feels pretty good. It’s an absolute honour to represent Rural Women and to be acknowledged for the many sleepless nights, the hard work and sometimes the tears.”

The win recognises a remarkable five years for Dorr, who established Southern Reproductive after returning to New Zealand following eight years in the United States.

Beginning as an independent artificial insemination technician, she has grown the business to include 12 AI technicians across the South Island and a team of more than 20 seasonal staff.

Southern Reproductive now also provides pregnancy scanning, is the national distributor for IMV Technologies ultrasound devices and has established an AI training school.

Revenue has increased by 100 percent year on year.

Rural Women New Zealand National President Heather Sorensen said choosing the Supreme Winner had not been easy.

“It was a great challenge for the judging panel as there were so many incredible, high calibre and creative businesswomen among the entrants,” Sorensen said.

“To be announced as the Supreme Winner is very special and I am delighted that Kylie Dorr is the recipient this year.”

For Dorr, one of the highlights of the awards was meeting the other category winners and spending time with women who understood some of the challenges that come with building a business.

“It was fantastic. It was absolutely awesome to meet all of the other category winners and to be in the same room with so many talented, successful people.”

She said several of the women found themselves talking about something that is perhaps less visible from the outside: the isolation that can come with entrepreneurship.

“Several of us talked about how isolating being an entrepreneur can sometimes be, especially rurally, and how finding your people can actually be more of a challenge.

“It was really nice to be in a whole room full of those same like-minded people.”

Entering the awards was itself a significant step for Dorr, who said putting herself and her business forward was well outside her comfort zone.

“If it wasn’t for the help of my administrator, Dan, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

The judging process also forced her to take a step back from the day-to-day demands of Southern Reproductive and properly consider what had been achieved.

“I was really astounded at the feedback from the judges and how positive it was.

“When you’re stuck at the coalface, you don’t really notice how well you’re doing. I’m not really one to look over the fence at what other people are doing, so I guess I hadn’t acknowledged how well we were actually doing.”

Dorr said she had continually reinvested in the business as new opportunities emerged, which could sometimes make it difficult to appreciate its overall progress.

“We start doing really well in one part of the business and then I come up with a new part of the business,” she said.

Sitting down to analyse the business as part of the awards process had been a valuable exercise.

“You have to be transparent and vulnerable with all of those things.

“It has been a really valuable exercise and has definitely made us look at how we can do things even better than we already were.”

The growth of Southern Reproductive has also created employment for other rural women.

Of the business’s more than 20 seasonal staff, Dorr said all but one were women.

While that had not been a deliberate strategy, she was proud of the team that had developed around the business.

“We’ve created an awesome team. It’s so good to be able to provide them with that feeling of being part of a team, being well supported, empowered and encouraged.

“That then helps them to do their jobs better.

“I’m just so thankful for them. I definitely wouldn’t have won this award without them.”

Southern Reproductive is continuing to grow, with Dorr now looking at how she can spend more time working on the business rather than in it, and plans are also under way to expand into Australia.

Christina Chellew, an Executive Manager at NZI, which has sponsored the Rural Women Business Awards for the past nine years, said Dorr was a deserving Supreme Winner.

“Kylie’s entrepreneurial spirit, customer focus and commitment to growth make her a deserving recipient, and we look forward to seeing her continued success.”

For Dorr, though, the award has also provided something perhaps less tangible: a chance to stop, look back at what has been built over the past five years and acknowledge just how far Southern Reproductive has come.

And after years of hard work, sleepless nights and reinvesting in the next idea, that recognition is something she is allowing herself to enjoy.