74 | KJS Logtranz Ltd T T Hugh de Lacy Firm thrives from small begnnings Kaitaia’s KJS Logtranz into business in 2010, and the company has since grown to 15 trucks and several subsidiaries. TRANSPORT An indestructible old 430hp Mitsubishi Shogun truck with nearly 900,000km on the clock got Kaitaia’s KJS Logtranz into business in 2010, and the company has since grown to 15 trucks and several subsidiaries. Ken Subritzky – the KJS is his initials – formed the company with his son Emerson and late wife Carolyn when they got the opportunity to log timber from a forest on Northland’s Karikari Peninsula in which Ken was a shareholder. Of course they needed a truck to get started, and a friend recommended the tough old Mitsubishi which had served its time in the Kaingaroa Forest in the Central North Island. “We grabbed the opportunity with both hands, borrowed money to buy the truck and leased a trailer, and formed the company with Carolyn, Emerson and myself as equal shareholders,” Ken says. “The old truck was bullet-proof, like an old Landrover that could plod along at 45mph forever.” Before she died of cancer, Carolyn was a major player in the company, handling the books and setting in place a policy of retiring debt just as quickly as possible. “Today when we buy a new truck we put down a big deposit and pay it off over a threeyear instead of a five-year term – Carolyn was very strong on that – to ensure we run as trouble-free an operation as possible.” When KJS Logtranz later landed a five-year contract to cart timber from up in Te Kao to various locations as far south as Whangarei, the Subritzkys bought themselves a Hino, but later switched from Japanese trucks to the “far more sophisticated” European brands of Scania and Volvo. Again under Carolyn’s enduring influence, the company doesn’t let its trucks run up more than about 700,000km before replacing them, and while the logging industry has been severely hit by the collapse of Chinese and world timber markets, KJS Logtranz has come through largely unscathed. “That’s because we work for two really good outfits in particular which take a long-term view of the situation and are prepared to roll with the punches,” Ken says. One of those outfits is Summit Forest Plantations, owned by the Japanese giant Sumitomo, which has forests in both Northland and Gisborne. The other is local Maori incorporation Parengarenga which owns a big forest near Ninety-Mile Beach. Ken’s been in trucking most of his life, having been taught to drive a truck and trailer by a sole operator, Hylton Tabb, while he was completing a boiler-maker/welder’s apprenticeship at the NZ Railway workshops in Otahuhu, Auckland. Emerson was equally steeped in transport knowledge and culture, and it’s he who largely runs KJS Logtranz these days, Ken having stepped aside. Subsidiary companies include KJS Mechanical and Tyres, which does heavy vehicle maintenance, and the traffic safety management company SafeTrack Northland which has 85 people working for it, while the group overall employs around 150 people all up. BUSINESS GET SMART SUPPORT YOUR TO GROW Spark Business Hub is here to help. GET IN TOUCH 0800 366 784 09 470 0850 www.ten4.co.nz proud supporters to KJS Logtranz Ltd transport engineering for repairs, maintenance, design & manufacturing. Maple Court, 5 Puckey Ave, P.O. Box 254, Kaitaia P (09) 408-1000 info@harrisongillespie.co.nz FOR PROMPT, PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL SERVICE. Accounting and taxation advice. OUR SERVICES INCLUDE: • Financial Statements • Payroll and PAYE • GST • Periodic management statements • Cashflow and budgets • Income tax returns • Computer programme advice and assistance
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=