| 89 White Wood Homes BUILDING Sue Russell White Wood Homes concentrates mainly on design and build as well as offering house and land packages throughout the Waikato, Fresh, sleek, pure homes Malachi and Hannah Farrant established White Wood Homes, formerly Malachi Farrant Homes, in 2010. High on their agenda of priorities has been creating a company with a really inclusive culture and Hannah says they never underestimate just what a fantastic team they have working with them. “We chose White Wood Homes when we rebranded, to get away from a person’s name and we discussed it with our team and they liked the sound of it; fresh, sleek and pure,” Hannah explains. And those values reflect how the business chooses to operate and the types of projects it gets involved in. “We like everything to go out neat and tidy and for the project to be a really positive experience for our clients.” In total, there are nine working in the company and most recently another big step has been taken in employing a QS, which Hannah describes as a huge leap forward to support the future growth and development of the business. She also says there’s a good balance between experienced qualified builders and young apprentices coming through. “The younger ones bring passion and fitness and a real drive to learn all there is to know about being a great builder. One of our guys put himself forward to the Master Builders Apprentice of the Year in our region which really speaks to his commitment to building as a career and his aspirations to grow.” White Wood Homes concentrates mainly on design and build as well as offering house and land packages in specific pockets throughout the Waikato, including significant offerings in Kihikihi, near Te Awamutu, and more recently developing homes for our clients at Raglan’s new subdivision, Rangitahi. Seventeen houses have been built so far at Kihikihi, with a further seven planned in the foreseeable future. When Covid came along, and with a view to working cleverly regarding costings, the couple decided to build their own home with showroom attached at St Kilda, in Cambridge. Prior to this they called Raglan their home. “It works really well because our own home is open, by appointment, for people to view the types of specifications we build to, while the additional space allows us to display other features and standards, all on the one site.” With a growing family and busy life, Hannah says the couple are very clear about ensuring quality family time and other activities, outside work, take place. Usually, with the team currently employed, White Wood Homes, works on about five houses at a time, to ensure there is always plenty of work ongoing. “Put simply, we just want to be the best, not the biggest.” Strategically, employment of another Project Manager, would enable the company to increase its activity in a sustainable way and that is what the couple are eventually planning to do. White Wood Homes also takes on architecturally designed builds for clients on their own sections and have worked in Hamilton, Morrinsville, and the wider Waikato, including Waihi Beach. These days Malachi spends about 80% of his time in the office, procuring work, dealing with the materials orders and ensuring the teams on the ground have all they need for the build to go well. Hannah’s skills lie in supporting clients with fixtures, colours, flooring etc options to personalise the home to exactly what they want to live in. “As a team we work really well with our complementary skill-sets and its great to be working together in our business.” Giving back to the community is another important principle and in the past the couple have taken their team to places like Fiji on voluntary missions to support a building project, also volunteering to help MMM NZ (Christian Building Services) with their range of projects. We believe Electric Empire is more than just a trade company. We value positive team culture above everything and believe that having a happy, well functioning team is essential to providing excellent service to our customers. Our focus is not just to train exceptional tradesman, but to develop exceptional people. 027 349 7307 | Shannan@electricempire.co.nz | electricempire.co.nz
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