56 | Rangitikei: Brittons House Movers Demand drives strong growth in relocatables Building costs and supply issues have led to a spike in demand for relocatable houses, says Elwyn Fryer from Britton House Movers. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT T Sue Russell The site of a home, cut up, carefully placed on sophisticated trailers and moving along a New Zealand road to its new home is something that usually evokes a great deal of admiration from the general public. The skill set, problem-solving capability and use of complex technologies all combine to see thousands of dwellings and buildings each year begin a new life in a new place. Elwyn Fryer from Britton House Movers, has seen just about any imaginable size and shape building moved, often through the wee-smalls. He knows the intricacies and hard-work that go into a successful relocation. The company has been operating since 1957, beginning in Wanganui, when Ted Britton, with one truck lifted up a small wooden villa. The pilot vehicle was the local Traffic Officer on bike. One can only imagine what people seeing this uplift must have been thinking. Today, it transports buildings all over the North Island and has a team of some 50 staff and 60 vehicles between its four depots and sale yards siuated in Wellington, Bulls, New Plymouth and Irongate Road, Hastings. Home for Elwyn is Hawke’s Bay and he looks after activity along the East Coast from the Wairarapa north. When Business Central spoke with Elwyn he and the team had just completed shifting a new building on to a Marae at Kuruwai. This project had additional people onboard from Moving Houses, hosted by Clark Gayford. “I enjoyed the experience and it will be good to see how the project looks when it screens.” The team includes a good proportion of young people and Elwyn says for anyone interested in transporting and seeing the country, this is an ideal job. “There are periods when the work is very time-specific and intense but the team we have really enjoy seeing a project through successfully and take pride in their work.” Elwyn says the increasing cost of building, supply issues and uncertain building timeframes these days, has led to really strong growth from the public in looking at either buying a relocated home from their array of homes small and large at their sale yards, or relocating a home from one location to another, freeing up more valuable land in cities and towns. “I find it super-rewarding work and you become part of the owner’s life. Across the country today we would have 60-80 buildings pre-sold.” And a move by city-dwellers out into the provinces is only going to add further demand. The evolution of equipment used to transport homes has also been huge. Elwyn says he’s thankful that he has a good core of operatives who have been with the company many years and are great at thinking on their feet and using the sophisticated hydraulic/ electronic equipment at their disposal. When a new team member joins Elwyn says he prefers to train them from the ground-up. “It just makes it easier for us to imprint our way of working when they haven’t necessarily had a lot of years working in the sector. It’s a case of balancing though the new with the experienced ones who do the training.” All, Elwyn says, any good keen young person needs to do, is knock on the door and say hello. “I can very quickly see if they are a good match for the company. I like their young energy and enthusiasm.” FORESTRY Maintenance Ltd Proudly supporting Brittons Housemovers 0274 424 158 HavelockNorth HASTINGS 1181 Omahu Road, Hastings Ph: 06 879 7029• hastings@baytyres.co.nz Proud to support & supply tyres and servicing to Brittons Housemovers • Keeping Hawkes Bay Rolling • Big or Small we do them all • 24/7 Fleet/Farm on site Service www.baytyres.co.nz Visit us on facebook For all your TYRE REQUIREMENTS in the HAWKES BAY come and see... YOUR LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED INDEPENDENT TYRE TEAM
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