Business Rural North Spring 2021

| 51 Rural North » Tawataia Farm: Don and Jeanette Wills Tawataia R3 bull, Pretty Boy (left) and a Red Devon bull calf weighing in at a healthy 38kg. Early in 2006 at the dealership Carl Hinton was working at, it was announced that it would be closing the doors and shifting back to Feilding. Carl came home that night and talked to his father David insisting that they must do something to keep the brands alive in Taranaki. David & Kathryn Hinton purchased the old Stratford Press printing building at 400 Broadway in Stratford and setup shop on the 10th of July 2006. Carl was a mechanic in the shop. Kathryn was in the o ice, and David was the salesman, while still running the farm it was de initely a challenge. The business was always and still is based on service. Coming from a contracting and farming background we knew that having good back up service was essential, also with David & Carl being mechanics by trade, we were probably a bit one sided to the service side of the business. Having great sta , great brands and loyal customers the business went from strength to strength. Carl went on to become Service Manager and ran the workshop. In 2011 Carls sister, Paula joined the team and took on the job of running the Parts department where she grew it to a whole new level. Fieldtorque has always had a great sta retention rate with a lot of the The birth and evolution of Fieldtorque Taranaki original members still being there today. Kathryn had always dreamed of taking the business further with a nice new dealership. In 2018 David & Kathryn purchased a new & bigger site at the other end of town (101 Broadway) which we are at now. After a lot of planning and designing to what works for our business, a completely new building was erected and still as always, designed around backup service. The teammoved into their new premises in May 2021. (Fieldtorque MK2) Kathryn fell ill in May 2017 with cancer and unfortunately passed away on the 15th of February 2019, never being able to see what all her hard work had achieved. The building is dedicated to the memory of Kathryn, and her legacy continues here at Fieldtorque with her daughter Paula still working in the Parts department, her son Carl running the dealership as General Manager & Director as well as Carl’s wife Nicola in the o ice. Husband David still owns & works at the dealership in the background and is still very passionate for our brands, our customers, our province and what we do. We are very proud that we are the only Tractor & Ag dealership in Taranaki that is 100% locally owned & operated.