60 | Taranaki Business Awards: HEL Rimu Electrical Merger a win-win for electrical firm T T Virginia Wright REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT It was in 2018 that two men who could have been in competition with each other chose instead to cement the increasing collaboration between their two New Plymouth based companies and merge into one business. Keith Herbert, owner and managing director of HEL Electrical, which included Aotea Group, and Bruce Verry, owner and managing director of Rimu Electrical, joined forces after 30 years in business and combined their names to create a new electrical services company HEL Rimu Electrical. Both men still work in the company but as they hoped would be the case, others have stepped up to take on the positions of greater responsibility opened up by the merger, as Managing Director Callum Margetts explains. “The conversation between Keith, Aotea and Bruce was around what it would be like to create a succession strategy for the internal staff in both companies, but also the opportunity to allow Keith and Bruce to step back after years of service. “They’d obviously worked hard on both their businesses and were looking to create opportunities for other people. The merger created new positions and allowed staff to step up into supervisor/leadership roles. “You’re only as good as your team and having that ability to move up internally definitely helps to stop people getting stagnant in their job and looking elsewhere.” Although the two businesses had areas of overlap HEL Electrical was more of a Rural service/project-based company with a small New Plymouth branch for servicing and some residential projects. Rimu Electrical was more of a New Plymouth based service/project company with divisions in heat pump and housing. Both companies had the desire to expand their businesses and coming together has given them the flexibility to diversify to meet changes in the economy. “HEL Electrical directors initiated the merger as a way to expand quickly and take on some larger projects in New Plymouth. It meant we were immediately working with a larger workforce rather than a gradual increase in staff if we had remained as HEL Electrical. The merge has allowed us to move staff around and increase the range of services the company can offer. When a client calls us, we can not only provide electrical services we can provide air con services, data services, and then follow up with servicing and preventative maintenance so we became a one-stop-shop. They can ring us and get just about an endto-end turnkey electrical solution through our business,” says Callum. Sitting behind the diverse services offered by the new company are the innovative new technologies, systems and processes that allow them to deliver those services with speed and efficiency. They’ve stopped using paper and their systems are now fully electronic. Technology brings speed with it and means they can access prices from their wholesalers at the press of a key which in turn means that they can turn a quote around in two or three days that could have taken a couple of weeks previously. All of the servicemen and tradespeople now do their paperwork and timesheets on tablets, as well as their certificates of consent, job certifications, and Health and Safety reports. “So all the information is really at their fingertips,” says Callum, “including new house plans or information around hazardous substances. Any information like that is fully available via their tablets or cell-phones.” Something that didn’t emerge from the review at the time of the merger, but which HEL Rimu recognized and took steps to address was the culture underpinning the business at every level. “It was left on the backburner to start with but by the end of 2020 we worked out we needed to involve everyone in working out what was important for us as a company and we incorporated that into our values and company plan,” says Callum. They’re reviewed annually and this year their collective values are Safety, Wellness, Enjoyment, Respect, Quality. Underpinning them all is the importance of each of the 52 staff knowing who all the others are regardless of which company they started with. The company culture along with their internal succession and innovation are the three key things that Callum believes led to their recent win of the TSB 2021 Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Trades Excellence Award. After two years of putting their improvements into practice they decided to enter to see what it looked like from the outside, specifically from the point of view of a panel of judges, all successful business people in Taranaki. Clearly the judges agreed the that the improvements were worthwhile. “We were absolutely ecstatic to win, and it just goes to show that we have an awesome team here at HEL Rimu,” says Callum, “and a lot of it’s to do with Bruce and Keith and their hard work and ideas that have benefited people in the company and the clients as well.” “HEL Electrical directors initiated the merger as a way to expand quickly and take on some larger projects in New Plymouth.” From left, HEL Rimu Electrical ’s Keith Herbert, Callum Margetts and Bruce Verry.
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