54 | A busy seven years for Pomeroy Logging The livery really stands out. Hyundai excavators on the job. Virginia Wright Harley and Jennie Pomeroy started their logging company Pomeroy Logging on the 1st December 2014. Based in Whanganui they generally work in whichever forest their contract takes them to throughout the region apart from an occasional contract elsewhere in the North Island. “We are forest harvesting contractors,” says Jennie. “So we’re the guys that go in to the forest, cut the wood, process it and get it ready to go on the trucks and then when the truck leaves that’s our job done. The forest owner or manager comes in and checks that we’ve done everything up to standard and we move onto the next job.” It’s been a busy seven years for the Pomeroys who are now well established with all their own machinery, a re ection in part of the increasing mechanization of the forestry industry. Jennie runs the of ce while Harley spends most of his time working with the crew out on the job. They work in closely with Competenz and all of their crew are involved in some sort of training whether they’re experienced operators upskilling or just starting out. “One of them is working towards his level 4 breaking-out certi cate and another his level 4 tree-falling. Each job has its own quali cation,” Jennie explains,” they don’t necessarily have to have it when they start with us, but they have to be working towards it.” It’s a carefully managed system with Health and Safety at the forefront especially for those starting out. “With tree-felling for example, we have someone who’s experienced doing it, and then someone from Competenz is alongside teaching the person so the one actually doing it’s not distracted, and then they assess them once they’re ready,” explains Jennie. These days Harley’s working with ve men in the crew, not just the one he began with, but that hasn’t stopped him putting in the sort of hours (he starts at 2.30 am, is back home around 5pm for time with the children and dinner, then has an early night in anticipation of doing it all over again the next day), that Jennie credits in part as the reason why they recently won the “Manufacturing & Production” award at the Te Manu Atatu RURAL SERVICES » Pomeroy Logging Business Awards in Whanganui for 2021, that and the story of how they began seven years ago. “We started with literally nothing,” says Jennie. “One of Harley’s golf mates was a forest manager, he approached Harley and asked him if he still wanted to run his own crew because there was a forest ready to go. Harley said yeah de nitely but I’ve got no money behind me and have no idea where to even start. His mate said ‘well I need someone in there, I’ll tell you what to do and you just do it’. So with that Harley and one of his friends, Dave, got in there with their chainsaws and got to work. It was during the Christmas period where forestry generally shuts down, so they cut down trees for 4 weeks in anticipation of start up in The New Year. The forest manager had an account with a machinery place so we hired a delimber and a loader, and we got our rst few trucks out, and we were like ‘my gosh there goes our wood’. Then they paid us on the 20th of the following month so we paid Dave and paid all our bills, paid our hireage, and kept a bit for us and that was it. We kept going like that and we’ve done that for seven years” says Jennie with a laugh, “and we’ve slowly built ourselves up.” Jennie and Harley had no expectation of winning the award given the relatively small size of their business and Jennie puts it down to the fact that they did it from scratch, “so I guess I’m quite proud of that” she says. “And Harley’s got his oldest son working with us now so hopefully we can give all the kids jobs if they want them, and any friends or family that needs a job. Not everyone’s cut out for forestry but we’re still happy to give them a go if they want.” Why choose us? Call us today Total Log: 027 544 6881 | Total Transport: 06 346 5375 We’re a Taranaki family owned and operated company, providing e icient and reliable transport for industry leaders in dairy and forestry. ONLY THE BEST FOR YOUR FORESTRY MANAGEMENT Proudly independent and backed by over 30 years experience in all areas of forest advisory work and management. 0800 366 700 www.forest360.co.nz
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