48 | Perry Metal Protection T T Hugh de Lacy Kiwi bloke’s 50-year legacy lives on Company founder Brian Perry, who died in 2011, was a Waikato business colossus. INDUSTRY Outraged at the prices the only hot-dip metal galvanising company in the country wanted to charge him, civil contractor Brian Perry promptly set up his own galvanising factory in Hamilton, and this year Perry Metal Protection is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Brian Perry, who died in late 2011, was a Waikato business colossus who launched his civil contracting company in Hamilton in the 1950s at the age of 19 with $3200 borrowed from his father. He grew Perry Civil into one of the country’s leading manufacturing, importing and distribution companies, while also setting Perry Metal Protection on its own path of nationwide expansion, with branches in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and a collection depot in Tauranga. “He was a remarkable man with a Kiwi bloke mentality, who was intensely concerned for the welfare of his staff who repaid that concern with extraordinary loyalty – we have half a dozen staff here in Hamilton who have been with Perry Metal Protection for over 40 years,” the company’s general manager, Steve Halse says. “Brian Perry started out in business as a one-man owner-operator of an excavator, and within 20 years he had become the biggest civil engineering contractor in the Waikato. He was a real philanthropist too, supporting a range of local charities and organisations.” The group is now led by Brian’s older son Simon, who is passionate about health and well-being, is involved in many community projects, and is building on his father’s legacy with the involvement of his sister Tiffiney in the group. Steve says the company was still exploring a range of ideas as to the form the 50th anniversary celebrations will take, but reckons they will be memorable and will involve staff and long-time customers. Perry Metal Protection has more than 112 staff employed at its various sites, and is part of the Perry Group, which includes Perry Property and its Te Awa Lakes project, a 62ha residential sub-division on the site of the old Perry quarry at Horotiu. In 2021 Perry Metal Protection added sandblasting to its portfolio with the acquisition of Waikato Sandblasting Services, its nextdoor neighbour for the previous 30 years. It provides abrasive blasting to a wide range of products and projects, from swimming pools and construction elements to artwork and vehicles. “Sandblasting is an important adjunct to the galvanising capacity, and it helps that the two services are next door to each other in Hamilton,” Steve says. The company also manufactures a range of steel grating products marketed under the Perry Grating brand. The Hamilton headquarters boasts the biggest and most technologically advanced hot-dip galvanising plant in the country, featuring an eight-metre kettle that can take “anything that can be galvanised,” Steve says. “That includes structural building components and canopies, which probably make up the greatest output by volume, but also balustrades and hand-rails and various kinds of agricultural applications. “Other metal products we provide protection to include pipes, gates, rails, beams and stillages – the list goes on.” The kettles in both the Wellington and the Christchurch factories are seven metres long while the Auckland one is five metres long. When the Christchurch galvanising plant was set up by Brian Perry in 1979 and opened by Minister of Works Bill Young, the theme of the event was ‘Steel Needs a Good Bath’. Established five years earlier, Perry Metal Protection was a founding member of the Galvanising Association of New Zealand, and today it employs a team of expert staff able to advise on design features, and to liaise with the in-house design engineers, specifiers, materials engineer and fabricators to ensure the best protection for the metal. This is what we’re all about with Taege drills. Our flexible tyne and Tungsten faced tips give you excellent penetration
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