Two Bay of Plenty chief executives are being recognised for their efforts in business as nominees in this year's Business Leader of the Year awards.

The Paengaroa-based global natural health and beauty products company Comvita CEO Brett Hewlett and Port of Tauranga CEO Mark Cairns are two of the 11 nominees in this year's NZ Herald Business Leader of the Year awards that include Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe and Summerset Group chief executive Noral Barlow.

Port of Tauranga CEO Mark Cairns and Comvita CEO Brett Hewlett are both nominees in this year's NZ Herald Business Leader of the Year awards.

Brett has been chief executive of Comvita New Zealand since September 2005. Before that he spent 15 years working for world-leading food packaging company Tetra Pak with in the eastern Mediterranean and Saudi Arabi.

Brett is a current member of the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Better by Design Advisory Board and an Independent Director of US-based Derma Sciences Inc.

Comvita announced a net profit after tax for the first six months to 30 September 2012of $2.386 million on sales of $45.4 million.

Brett says Comvita's trading has been especially strong in China, South Korea and Hong Kong where it operates a predominantly direct-to-consumer retail business.

'We are much better equipped to take advantage of the continued growth in consumer demand for our unique, premium product offering.”

In October, Comvita acquired a Whanganui-based bee-keeping operation. The Group now operates four apiary businesses across the North Island of New Zealand, which contribute approximately one-third of Comvita's total Manuka honey requirements.

In June 2012 Comvita passed the milestone of $100 million in annualised sales.

Mark has been chief executive of the Port of Tauranga since 2005. He oversees 185 full-time staff after serving as chief executive of C3 Limited (formerly Toll Owens Limited) for five years.

Mark is also chairman of North Tugz Limited, Tapper Transport MetroPack Limited, a director of Northport Limited and a board member for Meridian Energy Limited.

Mark says he was pretty ‘chuffed', but at the same time embarrassed about the nomination.

'This is not just an individual achievement, rather a nomination for the whole company.

'I think the company can stand tall.”

The Port of Tauranga announced a record profit of $73.5million for the financial year ending June 30. The profit was up 26 per cent on the previous record Net Profit after Tax for 2011 of $58.4million.