VBA is a very powerful programming language, so it is certainly capable of directly reading, parsing and writing files of any type. The Word object model does not need to be used, if you know the format of the file that you are working with. Also, VBA has the capabilities to invoke any other program. It sounds like in your case, it would be sufficient to just invoke a second program (a zip utility) as a command-line bat file. It's not necessary to have a complicated interface between Excel and the utility.
For my background: I have many years of experience programming in a variety of languages, working for small software companies. But I have just recently launched a new career as a freelance programmer. In the freelance world, the way it works is that you have to have a solid record of successes at small projects to have a chance to win a larger project. So at this stage, I am more interested in getting those successes, and a list of happy clients, than I am in the money. So I am willing to go the extra mile at no extra cost to you.