78 | T T Virginia Wright Adding value on the trickier jobs The company’s head office is still in Hawke’s Bay, but it now has regional branches in Hamilton, Manawatu and Wellington. CONTRACTING BR Turfrey What Bruce Turfrey established as a residential plumbing company in Hawke’s Bay 50 years ago, has since grown into a much larger commercial plumbing and roofing company with a presence throughout the North Island. Bruce’s eldest son, Brad, started with Turfrey as an apprentice when he was 18. He took over the reins in 2013, and over the last 13 years he and his team have taken the business on a journey of growth and transformation. Its head office is still in Hawke’s Bay, but the company now has regional branches in Hamilton, Manawatu and Wellington, as well as a retail arm operated by a separate arm of the business. Brad’s official title is group managing director in the family-owned-and-operated business, with his brother, Thomas, joining as operations manager in 2015. Bruce remains as a non-executive director, and they are supported by an experienced management team, including general manager and director, Rich Hutchinson. When Brad took over, his energy and enthusiasm saw Turfrey seizing every opportunity to expand into larger commercial jobs and eventually it started moving out of the residential space altogether, he says. “Trying to be a Jack of everything just wasn’t sustainable, and we were carving out a bit of a niche, to be honest, by doing the biggest and most complex commercial projects around. By the end of ‘22 I could see the economy was shifting. “The construction boom was wearing thin, so we made the decision very early to streamline the business and become more efficient, while at the same time narrowing our focus to concentrate on commercial roofing and plumbing only,” Brad says. They invested in the high-level Quality Assurance (QA) systems essential for managing risk and ensuring compliance when working with large commercial clients. An early adopter of new technology and materials, they have built up the capability, knowledge and experience to become the preferred contractor for a lot of repeat clients, such as the tier 1 commercial construction companies responsible for many of New Zealand’s more complex builds. Among the various commercial builds, including schools, hospitals and prisons, they do a lot of work in the dairy sector, installing insulated panels and metal roofing and cladding for dairy plants across the North Island. Like the tier 1 companies, these clients come back to Turfrey knowing they are familiar with the work and what it takes to complete it on time and on budget. With a team that now numbers over 150 full-time employees and a really good network of contractors, Turfrey has the resources to pour into the different projects they take on, which invariably come with a hard deadline. Whether it’s 30 people installing 45,000sqm of warm roofing on the multiple buildings that are part of the new Waikaria prison development, or 20 responsible for the 47,000sqm on a new Fonterra milk-powder dry store, they have experienced people, who can be relied on to do the job and do it properly. “We also have a strong management team back-ending our projects and a lot of experience around the systems and the methodology, or the way things need to go together, which makes a difference when it’s a tricky job. “You don’t know what you don’t know, so you need to have that technical knowledge, and the clients really rely on us for that. So the trickier the better for us, that’s where we can really add value,” says Brad. Underlying the value that Turfrey brings to any job are the systems and culture around Health & Safety that have steadily improved over the last few years under the outstanding leadership of Jayden Barrow. After years on the tools in a senior plumbing role, he embraced the challenge of making Health & Safety an easily achieved and effective part of Turfrey’s operations. A complete digital transformation with the Site App Pro eventually got buy-in from the whole workforce, with younger apprentices helping out older staff, and behind it all Jayden steadily built up the strong Health & Safety culture that led to him being a top-three finalist for the Safety Leadership Award in the Site Safe Awards 2026. Thanks to Jayden’s leadership, Turfrey is working with improved Health & Safety systems, a strengthened culture, proactive planning and better hazard identification as they tackle some of the most complex commercial plumbing and roofing jobs in New Zealand. The Best Selection Of New Cars And Quality Used Vehicles In Hawke’s Bay 19 Thackeray Street, Napier 709 Karamu Road Hastings www.waynekirkmitsubishi.co.nz Phone: 06 835 5269 Phone: 06 873 3077
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