| 69 T T Sue Russell Coming up to 50 years of service no mean feat Today, the business is owned and led by Peter’s son Brook. Peter Owen Plumbing & Gasfitting CONTRACTING “Without business’s such as mine supporting them to learn all the skills of great plumbing, gasfitting and drainage, we’re going to lose a generation or more from the sector and that would have really serious consequences.” Hamilton’s Peter Owen Plumbing & Gasfitting Ltd is a business that has served its community for just shy of 45 years. Today, the business is owned and led by Peter’s son Brook, who served his time through his apprenticeship in the company. “I bought the business from Dad 8 years ago and our main line of work is new residential,” Brook explains. The company engages a team of 7 training and qualified tradespeople on the tools, and 1.5FTE staff in the office. As the owner, responsible for ensuring the projects keep coming across his desk and the staff have all they need to do their work well, Brook is usually out on sites 3 days a week, devoting the balance of his time to all the necessary management tasks that support a successful busy company. By making the decision to concentrate on delivering plumbing, gasfitting and drainage services to well established residential building businesses, there’s a certain guarantee of good volumes of work into the future. For the past 14 years, Peter Owen Plumbing has been engaged by Hamilton-based Pragma Homes to supply their services and expertise in the company’s new builds. Another well-established client, Signature Homes, also contracts Brook and the team on their new builds across Hamilton and the wider Waikato region. “There has been a slowing down in the residential build sectors as the market adjusts to higher interest rates and tighter lending criteria from banks, along with increases in building costs, but we’re fortunate to always have enough work to keep ticking along well. Even through the GFC of 2007/8 we were busy.” And as a well-established operator in the sector Brook says he’s seen the apprenticeship programmes change over times. He does carry concerns about the quality of learning experience apprentices receive through the traditional tertiary providers. “There was a big demise through COVID when a lot of learning had to move on line and what seems to be the situation in recent years is that institutions delivering the training don’t have enough trained and experienced trades tutors to teach. “This issue needs to be addressed if we are to retain good standards in the industry and provide young people coming through with a good solid learning foundation.” Brook says he will always have apprentices as part of the team. “Without business’s such as mine supporting them to learn all the skills of great plumbing, gasfitting and drainage, we’re going to lose a generation or more from the sector and that would have really serious consequences.” Another concern Brook has is that there is a continual tweaking of regulations governing how certified work is undertaken. Some of these changes, he says, don’t make sense and represent a ‘dumbing-down’. An example he gives is the requirement now that all water heating systems must be set at 50°C rather than 55°C, due to concerns about people scolding themselves, however there was a good reason for setting the bench-mark at the higher temperature, for hygiene standards. “As of October, the reduced temperature is legally required, however all the systems are pre-set at 55°C and will need to be lowered.” Asked about the current size of the business Brook says he’s happy with its situation, though would consider growing the team if justified in the future. “There’s always a balance to be found, between ensuring you have sufficient scale to size opportunities as these present, and to ensure the market conditions allow for everyone in the team to be busy and engaged. Where we are at at the moment is working well for us.” 0800 772 462 | enquiries@pragma.co.nz www.pragmahomes.co.nz Proud to support Peter Owen Plumbing Ltd P: 07 974 9275 | 680 Arthur Porter Drive, Te Rapa, Hamilton
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