78 | Peter Vossen Builders T T Hugh de Lacy Adapting to the times The company has won eight Gold and Gold Reserve awards for houses mostly in the $1m to $2m bracket. BUILDING Proudly providing high-quality building products to Peter Vossen Builders Rewa Street, Matamata www.buildlink.co.nz 07 888 8145 office@matamatatimber.co.nz Brick & Block Laying | Paving | Stonework | Tiling Proudly supporting Peter Vossen Builders P 021 128 8081 E info@paramountscaffolding.co.nz www.paramountscaffolding.co.nz Paramount Scaffolding is lifting people throughout the Waikato and Bay of plenty to new heights. We pride ourselves on a great working relationship with all our customers and clients and are a dedicated team to help make the job easier and safer for all involved. A DEDICATED PROFESSIONAL TEAM Give us a call today! Phone 07 888 7264 or 027 240 8415 • jimmy@jimmynealelectrical.co.nz When it comes to all things electrical, we’ll see you right. • Whether it’s domestic, commercial or rural electrical • You have my commitment to consistency and continuity • Personal service and consultation Proudly Supporting Peter Vossen Builders Some grim economic times could be on the near horizon for New Zealand and the world, but Matamata builder Peter Vossen is primed to work his way through them even as falling demand cuts his work in hand back from 18 to about six months. Peter’s cautious outlook is not influenced by the devastation that Cyclone Gabrielle left in its wake, because it somehow skipped round Matamata without doing too much damage. “The cyclone just grazed us – Matamata was very lucky – but there are other factors that could see the world economy start to stall about May or June this year, and that’s going to effect the New Zealand construction industry,” Peter says. Peter left school at 17 after winning the woodwork prize at Matamata College, and apprenticed himself to a sole operator, John McMillan, based in Matamata. In 1981 he completed his apprenticeship with Potter Brothers, also of Matamata, but which is no longer in business. He spent four years gaining experience with a succession of other builders before going out on his own in 1985. From the start Peter pitched himself at the high-end residential building market, but he was always prepared to do renovations and additions between house projects. Though mostly working alone initially, he took on an apprentice early, and he has been a big supporter of apprentices and apprenticeship schemes ever since. Over the years he built up both his reputation and his workforce, with the latter usually comprising six to eight staff, but lately he’s lost a couple to Australia and he’s a bit cautious about replacing them at this stage of the economic cycle. Peter led from the front with his commitment to apprentices – he’s employed no fewer than 27 over the years, and he has three on his staff at the moment – through his membership of the Master Builders Federation. He was president of the Waikato branch from 2003 to 2005, and he’s been a member since 1992. “It’s a way of giving something back to the industry,” says Peter. “Seeing these apprentices going out and making careers for themselves, and some of them starting up their own companies.” In the process, Peter Vossen Builders has made a big name for itself winning no fewer than eight Gold and Gold Reserve awards in the Master Builders’ annual awards, mostly for houses that are in the $1 million to $2 million bracket. From a base in Short Street, Matamata, Peter Vossen Builders these days completes two – sometimes three – bespoke houses a year, mostly within a 20km radius of the town, while retaining the capacity for “a sideways shift”, as Peter puts it, into renos and additions as required. This flexibility is going to be vital, Peter says, to get the company through the impending downturn, driven by the global slump triggered by the Covid pandemic.
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