| 67 T T Sue Russell Urlich engaged at the early stages of each job Urlich Plumbing has worked across a wide array of builds. Urlich Plumbing CONTRACTING It was a strong desire to steer his own ship and enjoy all the benefits of his own hard work that propelled Hamilton-based Tony Urlich to set up his own plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying business in 2006, along with his wife Shelley. “We set up the business at the back of our home and it was a pretty low key start,” says Tony. Prior to this, he had spent some time overseas plumbing as well as working as 2IC for another company in Hamilton which had shown him a good insight into how business worked. “When I first set up Urlich Plumbing I was actually quite content to do my own thing but within six months I had my first apprentice on board,”Tony says. Moving into a commercial property in Frankton really changed the buiness and accerlated the the company growth. From there, the cycle of adding a new team member every six months or so kicked in as demand for his services grew. Asked how work came his way back then, Tony says it was from word of mouth and referrals from friends that really got him started. “I had builder friends so I was referred for some of their builds and that’s how it really grew.” With experience in the commercial plumbing sector Tony soon got into that realm, with bigger jobs, which again, created the opportunity for the company to take on more staff to meet the demand. “Then once you get a name for yourself through the tendering process you start getting sent out more and more plans and things just go from there; that’s the short version of our journey.” “Much of our success has come via doing everything, plumbing, gasfitting and drainage work on sites, so owners don’t need to call on separate contractors.” Urlich Plumbing has a website, letting the quality of their work and the large range of projects speak for itself. Tony says he’s in the happy position to gain more work from customers he has built long-standing relationships with. Urlich Plumbing gets involved in Design & Build projects at the earliest stages, something Tony says really benefits the projects delivery. This is a main focus of the buisness to ensure the client is happy with the outcome “Much of our success has come from the fact that we can do everything, plumbing, gasfitting and drainage work on sites, so owners don’t need to call on separate contractors to take on this work. From ground up we can make sure all the stages are complete.” Another string to his bow is that Tony is an IQP for back-flow surveying and testing. Urlich Plumbing have a large client base for the testing of backflow for council building WOF compliance every year and again helping clients get their projects off the ground at design phase with the backflow survey paperwork Asked how he’s been impacted, if at all, by the current state of the economy, Tony says there’s sufficient work to keep the team of 15 busy but there isn’t the flow to the work that he’s used to experiencing. “We do have quite a lot of future work lined up waiting for Council or resource consents or the banks to approve. I think that’s the situation around a lot of businesses aligned to building industry right now” Asked whether he would wish to grow the business beyond its current size Tony says he’s happy to hover between 15 – 20 staff. Through the COVID era the team reduced to a dozen. “Our size now seems to be comfortable and there’s plenty of variety for the team and great opportunities for apprentices coming through to experience all sorts of situations.” Urlich Plumbing Ltd has been involved in a lot of different projects over the years with a common trend of jobs following suit. “We’ve been involved in apartment projects in Auckland, along with notable commercial developments such as the Winger/Subaru, Kia Motors, Duncan & Ebbett, Range Rover and Volvo and showrooms/service centres in Hamilton.” Urlich Plumbing has worked across a wide array of builds including iconic restaurant/cafe projects such as Wayward Pigeon, Roaming Giant, Lookout Bar, Chili House, Fat Burger and Pokeno Whiskey to name a few. “While the new build market is somewhat quieter right now I know we’re in a good situation longer term. It’s one of the benefits from being in the sector a long time and having built a strong reputation.” Proud to be supporting Urlich Plumbing your guarantee of excellence CONGRATULATIONS Tony and the Urlich Plumbing Team. Keeping things flowing for 25 yrs. Great Service, Great People. Capital Tyres crn Bryce and Anglesea st. Hamilton | Helping Motorists for 45 yrs. Ph 0800 99TYRES
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