| 7 The stamp of success Sue Russell Community driven: Symons Group General manager, Dean Eggers, left, with company founders Graham and Jill Symons. Taranaki: Symons Group REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Beginning as Symons Transport back in 1984 working from a small farm shed with one truck Symons Group, as it is now known, has grown into one of Taranaki’s most successful and essential businesses. Through hard-work and years of successfully evolving related businesses and activities today the company - founded by Graham and Jill Symons - scales four divisions; Transport, Energy, Property and Waste Remediation Services. Group General Manager, Dean Eggers, describes the company’s core strengths as being directly linked to its founding. “It’s an old-fashioned 100% owned family business. My passion is people and I’ve been with Symons now since April 2018, where it was facing some challenges. Because it has the diversity of activity and industry engagement that it does, it meant we could build on that foundation, once we established where the weaknesses were.” Dean says his key passion is people and getting to understand their issues and motivations helped strengthen company culture. Providing some clarity in leadership also helped steer it forward and today its building year on year. From its base as a transporting business growth has been enabled by grasping opportunities to add value for clients. As Dean puts it ‘transport is our soft entry into other sectors we offer services in’. “We have specialised fleet that allows us to carry just about anything in bulk movement, anywhere, from milk, water to wine in our food grade tanker fleet, dangerous goods, tippers, flat/step trailers, transporters and excavators, VIP transport, we’ve got the experience and know-how so the job gets done as efficiently as possible for our clients.” Servicing the needs of the Energy sector has been another major step forward in the evolution of the company. Since 2010, Symons Energy Hub has grown into a one-stop-shop for all energy sector needs, supplying and storing products that keep that industry ticking over and growing. Symons Institute of Transport has been the latest activity to open. “It offers Class 5 drivers who may not have the opportunity to gain valuable experiences and time behind the wheel as well as Class 4 drivers the chance to step up a grade, greatly improving both their enjoyment of driving and their chances of making a good career out of it.” Even for full Class 5 holders who have been some time away from driving, the four-week course provides lots of real-life experiences driving different types of trucks servicing an array of sectors. “The great thing about the programme is that the variety of driving experiences they have can help them gauge the type of transport-related work they want to concentrate on.” Dean says founding the institute was the company’s way of helping the general transport sector. Since August 2020, when the doors opened, the institute has put through about 25 students excluding its own staff and that has included some who have recently attained their permanent residency. “There’s been good diversity with male and female and cultural backgrounds.” Symons Group’s property portfolios are also beginning to grow. All based in Bell Block, it has developed over 15 design and build facilities for its clients, and a few development opportunities still exist. Dean’s keen to spread the message that anyone considering a move to the vibrant and opportunity-filled Taranaki area, and is looking for employment with a company with many elements to it, is welcome to make contact and discuss possibilities. “We’re really big on engaging in this community and creating opportunities. We support 80-odd families from the people we employ and they all have connections and activity in the wider-community.” Both Graham and Jill Symons are staunch supporters of the community and proud locals. The company supplies Inglewood High School with a 50-seater bus to enable students to get to school from the communities close to our Base here in Bell Block. Firmly settled in a region it loves, Symons Group is certainly contributing its fair share to the continued expansion and growth of a very special part of New Zealand.
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