Business North November 2021

78 | Corys Electrical - Auckland Innovation award boost T T Sue Russell C orys Electrical, one of New Zealand’s leading electrical goods suppliers, is this year celebrating 100 years of powering New Zealand. Through its national network of 47 branch- es and specialist contract managers, Corys supplies electrical products and advice to the key market sectors including general electrical, residential, telecommunications, commercial, industrial, utilities and infrastructure projects. But they are far more than simply a supplier of electrical goods. Since 2012 Corys has been owned by Sone- par, an independent family-owned company headquartered in Paris, France. Sonepar is a global super-player with market leadership in the B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions and related services. This gives Corys a depth and breadth of knowledge and connections unrivalled by any other electrical goods supplier in New Zealand. Glenn Corbett, Managing Director of Corys since 2018 says “While we’re very much a sovereign business here, we enjoy all the ben- efits of the world’s largest electrical wholesale company operating in 40 countries.” Glenn sees big changes ahead for the sec- tor, and particularly for Corys over the next 5 to 10 years. Guiding the future direction of the company is a desire to be the best, which does not necessarily mean being the biggest. “Our future business is driven by three very interconnected elements; people, sustainabil- ity and technology. Pivotal to the company’s future growth is taking care of the people who matter most to our business. That is our own people, our customers and our suppliers who have each played a crucial role in making Corys what it is today. Recognising the value of these stakeholder groups means ensuring business growth not only delivers tangible benefits to them all but actually involves them in the journey.” Glenn explains that everyone of Corys 300+ team share Sonepar’s ambition to become “La Référence” – the standard setter for all stake- holders. Providing career pathways for our people and good succession planning are vital elements to achieve this. Success in this area is evidenced by the fact that Corys three long- est serving staff members have been with the business for 37, 37 and 36 years respectively and each of them are in management roles. “A customer centric approach is the foun- dation of all our thinking as we adopt a highly focused approach to providing service and support on all fronts,” says Glenn. Greater integration and utilisation of the digital workspace for example will significantly enhance customers experience. “Exposing our customers to the opportu- nities emergent technology presents, is also part of this and Corys wants to ensure that our customers have both the knowledge and access needed to integrate these innovations into their own work.” While each of Corys 47 branches are well established Glenn says they want to provide a similar level of service to customers in the zones between those branches. “To deliver efficiently and effectively into both metropolitan and provincial areas we are intelligently considering further network expansion together with better integrated technology solutions that give customers the same access to products they might have in a branch supported by genuine connections between dedicated Corys team members and each customer.” Sustainability is a key pillar of Corys future growth plans and a number of initiatives have already delivered tangible benefits. Since 2017 Corys 47 branches and support offices have each been powered by 100% carboNZero certified renewable electricity with Ecotricity. The move to buying carbon neutral energy resources, including wind, hydro or solar elec- tricity, from Ecotricity has so far saved 700,000 units of CO2. That’s the equivalent of 4,000 flights to Sydney Troy Wheeler Contracting CONTRACTING ‘Customer-centric’ approach at core T T Sue Russell A shift to paperless technology has seen Troy Wheeler Contracting win the 2021 Auckland Civil Contractors New Zealand Best Management Innovation award. Compa- ny general manager Matt Bradbury says the award was a real boost for the company and team and recognition that it remains at the cutting edge of the industry. “Management was looking at a huge amount of paper coming in from sites that contained various amounts of information. Some was high value while other information was worthless and actually cost us the wage of the staff member completing the form with no actual benefit to the company. At the end of the month management was trying to piece together all this info. It was time consuming and very inefficient,” he explains citing what instigated the move to paperless. The technology Troy Wheeler Contracting uses is based on the company’s existing paper forms for continuity so every app or form was designed in-house and tailored to suit Troy Wheeler Contracting purposes. By going digital it can collect and store more data for easy retrieval. “With the new system every entry gets posted into folders in OneDrive for immediate viewing the following morning. This enables management to keep a close check on indi- vidual projects, safety briefings and details of chargeable truck deliveries to customers and sites,” says Matt. He says Troy Wheeler Contracting com- menced with daily prestarts as this is a critical safety system. Once this was in place further apps were developed and each app was thor- oughly tested before designing the next one. The daily prestart app coincided with Covid-19 lockdowns so the app immediately proved its worth to extract data from the individual sign in and post it into a spreadsheet for Covid-19 contact tracing purposes. Matt says due to the system being easier staff prefer it over written paperwork. Other benefits include plant and equipment main - tenance becoming streamlined as any fault reported in the app gets emailed directly to the company workshop, complete with photos of the issue, which allows preplanning for re- pairs in real time. Clients also value the clarity and completeness of the prestarts, quality assurance and truck dockets. Based in Auckland, Troy Wheeler Contract- ing provides full services for civil construction to government, private development and capital works. The company has over 20 years of experi - ence and has been trusted to deliver critical and time sensitive civil works across the Auck - land Motorway Network. Matt says the new technology has significantly improved the way the company operates. “We now have well-developed systems and yet are nimble enough to meet rapidly changing work flows resulting from Covid-19 and the ever changing landscape of civil con- tracting.” Glenn Corbett, Managing Director of Corys. “While we’re very much a sovereign business here, we enjoy all the benefits of the world’s largest electrical wholesale company operating in 40 countries.” • Hiab trucks • 25 tonne pick & carry crane • 100 Tonne Crane Service • Maximum 32 metre reach available on hiab cranes • Trombone, step deck & transporter trailers • Tipper & digger hire • Man cage hire • Pilots • Concrete panel cartage Mackenzie Transport specialises in crane hire, over-width and over-dimensional loads, pick-up and delivery with mobile Hiab truck. Our skills in transportation & crane operation come from over 12 years of hands on experience in the industry If you need it moved, call us today!