56 | CONTRACTING Ruahine Property Works T T Kelly Deeks Handyman service that grew and grew Ruahine Property Works found its niche in the smaller jobs market, starting just after Covid. A Dannevirke property maintenance business which wasn’t meant to be more than one handyman has surprised its owners and delighted its customers by growing over the past three years into a team of 25 multi-skilled tradespeople, who will take on most projects on a residential or commercial site. Ruahine Property Works was started by Torrin and Lina Day when they employed a full time handyman to keep their rental properties up to spec. The plan was to utilise him for about 20 hours per week and hire him out for 20 hours. A local sign writer came up with some orange sign writing for the van and the phone started ringing. “From day one it just started growing,” Torrin says.“We decided to support it and grow it, and now we’ve got 21 vehicles on the road.” In Dannevirke, Ruahine Property Works grew from maintenance services into the renovation market, and the only trade it doesn’t operate from in-house is an electrician. “But we’ve got a reliable contractor. We’ll do anything around the property that you want including gardening, tree removal, fencing and concrete driveways through to new bathrooms and kitchens. We now also have a full-time roofing team undertaking repairs and full re-roofs.” After about six months in business, Ruahine Property Works hired Anna Rhodes for a part-time administration position. Now Anna is running the day to day functions of the business full-time and has been instrumental in its growth. Torrin, Lina, and Anna started looking at what else they could do for people while they were already on their properties, and 18 months ago Ruahine Property Works bought the local Garador franchise for the supply and installation of custom-made garage doors around Tararua and Central Hawke’s Bay. The company now also has the local Stratco dealership, supplying and installing a range of patio and outdoor living products around Tararua and the Manawatu. Ruahine Property Works has recently employed two new tradespeople in Palmerston North to support its second Garador franchise in the Manawatu, as well as completing maintenance works. “We’re not targeting the renovation market over there … yet.” Torrin says there are a lot of very good tradespeople in Dannevirke but they are all very busy working on bigger projects. Ruahine Property Works found its niche in the smaller jobs market, starting just after Covid while there was plenty of opportunity. Today Ruahine Property Works does undertake larger projects and as its experience and resources have grown, so have its customers. Ruahine Property Works now works for large entities like Te Whatu Ora, local councils, house rental companies, private landlords, local iwi, and police owned properties. In pursuit of compliance with health and safety requirements on government agency projects, and to guarantee its health and safety capabilities, Ruahine Property Works has an in-house health and safety committee, staff regularly undertake various training, and its quality health and safety systems have gained the company Sitewise Green certification. Team members are also police vetted which is a condition of some of our contracts and also good practice as the company works in a lot of private homes. Torrin says he and Lina were lucky to have the team around them and supportive suppliers who have all helped Ruahine Property Works to grow. “We try to be that solution for people if they have a problem.We are excited about the future and thrilled with the team we now have.” “We’ll do anything around the property that you want including gardening, tree removal, fencing and concrete driveways through to new bathrooms and kitchens. We now also have a full-time roofing team undertaking repairs and full re-roofs.” Proud to supply the aluminium joinery for Ruahine Property Works Limited First by name, First by choice • • FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS REPLACEMENT JOINERY • METRO SERIES • THERMAL HEART • KLIMA PVC SERIES • ARCHITECTURAL SERIES BERNIE WALSH ALUMINIUM, 11 MILLER ST, DANNEVIRKE. PH: 0800 347 789
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