Business North October 2021

| 69 Quality, consistency earn top award Rotorua’s BOP Plumbing and Gas Ltd company has 28 staff with a mix of apprentices and qualified workers. BOP Plumbing & Gas CONTRACTING T his year got off to a grand start for Sarah and Aaron Jamieson and the team of Rotorua’s BOP Plumbing and Gas Ltd when they were announced NZ’s Master Plumbers of the Year at its Annual Conference held in Blenheim in March. The conference has been an institution for more than 100 years and is an opportunity for Master Plumber members to listen to key-note speakers and learn about the latest industry innovations. Sarah says the decision to enter wasn’t something she had thought a great deal about. “The nomination form is quite in-depth. They wanted to know what sort of things we did in terms of marketing, what our major achievements have been and the contribu- tions we make to the plumbing industry.” In 2016 Aaron and Sarah merged their busi- ness with Aaron’s father’s company. Today, the company has 28 staff made up of a mix of qualified and apprentices. Bringing on apprentices is the way the business will continue to grow, however Sarah says that’s a process that needs to be carefully managed. “We think this is a great industry to gain qualifications in, however we need to balance our staff who are training with qualified and experienced tradespeople.” The bulk of their work is in maintenance and servicing the commercial sector. To support this, they opened a second branch in Kawerau in March 2020. When Covid struck, qualified staff were able to continue undertaking emergency work, however apprentices had some down time until alert levels came down. While Sarah oversees the administration side of the business, booking jobs and ensur- ing staff have what they need, Aaron prefers to be actively engaged on site. “With his knowledge, he’s best out there managing those less experienced to gain important skills. “Aaron is well known in the area for his gas knowledge and at times we get questions from other plumbing and gas businesses.” Bay of Plenty Plumbing and Gas has an on- call emergency service which operates 24/7. As Master Plumbers, Drainlayers and Gasfit - ters the business is Quality Assured through regular auditing of systems. Having fun as a team is something that Sarah says is super important to keep morale high and look after their staff. Sue Russell “Our team works really hard, often in chal- lenging environments. “There’s a lot of responsibility that goes with the nature of work they do, so it’s important to have times when it’s just having fun.” With the extraordinary circumstances that COVID brought, as soon as it was feasible the decision was made to close both branches and have a day of fun, playing paint-ball, driv- ing off-road vehicles and getting a wellness coach on board. Having a branch at Kawerau means that the crew there can service Whakatane and sur- rounding areas, while the Rotorua team works throughout the Bay of Plenty. “I think it works very well with Aaron and I able to work together in this business with our skill-sets. “I know we have built our reputation based on the quality of our work and that’s some- thing we are very proud of.”