72 | Building on a legacy of reliable service West Coast Ag Spraying provides critical fertiliser, herbicide, and pesticide application for local councils, main contractors, and private clients. Kelly Deeks RURAL SERVICES » West Coast Ag Contractors Ltd After honing their skills for the past five years, new business owners Jonnie Rangi and Caitlin Hudson have taken over the spraying division of West Coast Ag Contractors and started West Coast Ag Spraying, where they are set to build on the legacy of reliable and high quality service their customers can depend on. Based out of Nelson Creek, Ngahere and servicing pretty much the entire West Coast with gun spraying down to Haast and boom spraying up to Westport, West Coast Ag Spraying provides critical fertiliser, herbicide, and pesticide application for local councils, main contractors, and private clients. Working at the business since 2019 and taking over at the end of September last year, the transition was smooth for first-time business owners Jonnie and Caitlin. Empowered by their familiarity with the local terrain, the local farming community, and the finer details of the business, Jonnie and Caitlin hit the ground running. “This is a great business which is already set up with great foundations,” Caitlin says. “There’s not much we want to change about it. But we are young to own our own business, we’ve never been in management, and we’ve never employed people before, so this is a significant and exciting undertaking for us.” Jonnie and Caitlin made a significant early decision to upgrade their gun spraying truck, a critical part of their strategy to maintain high quality service offerings. Despite it being a 2017 model, the current truck is virtually antiquated against the rest of West Coast Ag Spraying’s modern fleet, and the ability to custom-build its deck means the company can have it tailored for the quantity and variety of work it does, and the area it does it in. “We’ve done so much research over the past five years and we know exactly what we want out of it,” Jonnie says. “It doesn’t only do gorse spraying, it does a lot of marker pegs and drains on the roading side of our operation, so it needs to be quite diverse. “We do the majority of our own maintenance work and everyone here knows how to fix everything, so we’re more than capable of putting it together, but we will get some help.” Before taking on any more growth, West Coast Ag Spraying is solidifying its presence amongst its current customers in the local marketplace, with Jonnie and Caitlin determined not to compromise on quality for a broader reach. They are somewhat insulated from the looming recession with agricultural spraying a vital component for many local businesses, and they remain determined to do their best for the customers they have. “This is a great business which is already set up with great foundations. There’s not much we want to change about it. But we are young to own our own business, we’ve never been in management, and we’ve never employed people before, so this is a significant and exciting undertaking for us.” For all your custom fabrication for vehicles, boats, machines, and all things metal. CAD Design, 3D Scanning, Reverse Engineering & more! Mike Hindmarsh 027 825 9680 mike@creekcustomfab.nz Gilchrist Brothers Ltd
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