10 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Taranaki: Linepower Richard Loader ‘Family’ culture the key to success Linepower has fostered a strong company culture which has enabled further growth and diversification. to page 12 Your one-stop shop for tyres in New Plymouth. Servicing New Plymouth wide, there is no job too big or too small. We carry all major brands of tyres, including Bridgestone and Supercat, we also provide wheel alignment, puncture repairs and everything in between. In addition to tyres, we have a fully equipped mechanical workshop with two qualified mecahnics who can performWOF (warrant of fitness) as well as WOF and mechanical repairs. We specialise in Century batteries and have a range of stock on hand. With our handy central location, only a short walk to town, you can easily come in for service. Open seven days a week, we also offer after hours service and can answer to callouts. CORSON TYRES 160 Gill St, New Plymouth www.corsontyres.co.nz 06 758 6100 corsontyres.ltd@xtra.co.nz Culture — the way things are done around here — can make or break teams, teams within companies and entire companies. Culture is the heart and the soul of a business, and successful companies work hard nurturing, shaping and growing the culture within their organisation, to provide the right environment for high performing teams to do their best. New Plymouth based network service provider Linepower knows all about culture, and with team numbers growing from twelve to thirty-six within the last seven years, has made culture a key measure of success. The company’s General Manager Ray Meyer says Linepower has always enjoyed a good ‘family’ culture, but of course that is easier to foster and manage in small teams. “When you balloon as a result of customer demand it brings its benefits, but also its challenges and we learned very quickly that you couldn’t employ just anyone. “Over the last few years, we’ve worked hard getting buy-in from all staff and managers that if someone wants to join the team they have to share the same ‘family values’, get on with the team and actually add to that family culture.” Taking that approach has proven very successful for Linepower, and the company is now seeing the dividends pay off with how team members interact and support each other, enabling further growth and diversification. “Essentially, we offer a service to our customers, and without the people we only have a big shed, offices and lots of trucks — but nothing else. It’s the service that we need to provide and our people are the face of our company. “They are out there with the customers on a daily basis and we rely heavily on them doing the right thing, every single day. The team culture is the key to all of that.” Linepower was established 20 years ago as a subsidiary to AJ Greaves Electrical, primarily to provide a service to PowerCo, the asset owner of the electricity network in Taranaki and other parts of the North Island. In addition to providing maintenance and renewal services to PowerCo, Linepower ventured into customer-initiated works (CIW) on rural properties and the occasional residential subdivision. More recently, increased demand from PowerCo and an up-turn in new houses and subdivisions, along with new industries and businesses moving into the region, has seen Linepower evolve into a much larger business, undertaking major projects, and diversifying the services it provides. “The core of our business right from the start has been overhead and underground power supply,” says Ray. “But in the last couple of years we’ve diversified into a number of other related areas. One of those being design engineering. Behind every line that’s built there’s an engineering design aspect that goes in behind that to ensure safety. J.A.Russell Ltd is proud to support Linepower throughout the Taranaki region. The region’s economy can only be enhanced by companies like Linepower.
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