Business North November 2021

| 77 Heron apprentice Awards finalist T T Sue Russell The Auckland based Heron plumbing team. Apprentice Patrick Sweeney (below) has been chosen as a finalist in the Apprentice Plumber of the Year category at the NZ Master Plumbers awards next March. Heron Plumbing CONTRACTING D ale and Andrea Lovell have owned and operated Auckland-based Heron Plumbing for 10 years. The company mainly services the North, East, West and Central Auckland areas. Their association with the 60 year old busi- ness harks back to when Dale used to help the founder Byran Heron in the business in the weekends while he was still at school. “Dale did his apprenticeship with Byran and then continued to work in the business until Brian was ready to sell the company and retire. He still pops in every so often, which is really nice,” Andrea says. Given that long history, when the company changed ownership, the decision was made to retain the name, and turn their attention to upgrading systems and bringing the business into the IT age. Andrea says this investment was really productive and has future-proofed the business well. “We changed the whole system and intro- duced Xero accounting and looked at a lot of computer packages. We ended up with a sys- tem called Simpro which has fitted in perfectly with how we operate.” Today, Heron Plumbing employs a team of 32 staff, with several apprentices at various stages of becoming qualified. Andrea says a strength of the business is Dale’s passion for encouraging apprentices and seeing them through well. “He knows the benefits of being well-trained and now we’re in a position to bring through the next generation of qualified plumber, gasfitter and drainlayer.” And this year, those efforts have been recognised in the form of apprentice Patrick Sweeney chosen as a finalist in the Appren - tice Plumber of the Year category at the NZ Master Plumbers awards, held in Blenheim in March. When Business North spoke with Andrea, Paddy was no longer working for the compa- ny, choosing instead to spread his wings and move overseas. “We took Paddy on when he was in his first year of his apprenticeship. I interviewed him and made our standards clear and he really got that. He had charisma. Like all our staff, we treated him just like family.” Apprentices are taken through a training course established by Master Link and deliv- ered at the ICE training facility in East Tamaki. The organisation has a centre purpose-built for plumbers and Andrea couldn’t recom- mend them highly enough. As an essential service through COVID a degree of urgent jobs have been able to be completed, however Andrea says the impact has been significant. “There is only so much urgent work, so of our 32 staff we just have one plumber doing the essential jobs.” Zoom meetings had become the order of the day to keep key staff connected and Andrea, like so many other business owners in Auckland, was looking forward to drop- ping down to Level 3, so more work could be programmed. Returning to a backlog of work is something she says the company will take in its stride. “We have 50 maintenance jobs in our sys- tem waiting for Level 3, so it can’t come soon enough.” Fortunately, the business has a solid amount of supplies in the workshop. Heron Plumbing Ltd works across the resi- dential, commercial and industrial sectors. While the commercial reality of working through extended COVID lockdowns in the Auckland region can not be overlooked, Andrea says the company is in good positive position. “We’re fortunate to have established a very solid reputation and strong client base. We have great staff, good systems and management structure and it’s these things at times like this that will see our business con- tinue to grow from strength to strength.” CREATE YOUR DREAM BATHROOM AT MICO Proud supporters of HERON PLUMBING MICO HENDERSON 31A PARAMOUNT DRIVE, HENDERSON 09 836 1388 MARK SMART BRANCH MANAGER MARK.SMART@MICO.CO.NZ 021786728 www.mico.co.nz