60 | Award win a surprise Invercargill based Dawson Electrical took out the Emerging Business Award South Island at the New Zealand Trade Group (NZTG) gala awards T T Russell Fredric Industry award caps busy year for team Dawson Electrical T T Sue Russell CONTRACTING Cowley Electrical Dairy & Pumps Adding value to businesses by providing support to navigate the risk management landscape. RES I DENT I AL & COMMERC I AL PH 03 215 9208 CELL 0274 346 012 | 0274 346 009 A/Hrs 03 2130 811 or 03 213 1575 18 Arena Avenue | Invercargill • Drainlayers • Plumbing • Roofing • Registered • Bathroom & Kitchen • Renovations Available through your local installer via Realcold’s nationwide distribution network. greeac.co.nz Nathan and Adrienne Dawson established Dawson Electrical Ltd five years ago, based in Invercargill. Prior to starting the business Nathan was operating as a sole trader, however demand for his services soon pointed to the fact that a company business model would serve better and future-proof it for future development. Dawson Electrical are electrical and heatpump specialists who also offer refrigeration engineering services. The bulk of the work is in installing and servicing heatpumps and general electrical work. “We generally contain our work in and around Invercargill and we also undertake electrical work for some key builders we’ve established business relationships with,” says Adrienne, who along with another team member, takes care of the administration and support work to keep the business ticking over well. Working with Nathan on the tools are two tradesmen. Along with these, Dawson Electrical has three apprentices currently in training through ETCO. Adrienne says that since establishing, she and Nathan have been pleased with how demand for their services have evolved. “We concentrate on new builds, renos and alterations, heat pumps and some commercial work.” Asked how business has been, Adrienne says its been at a frenetic pace and, at this time, even though demand might warrant growing the team bigger, they don’t really aspire to get much larger in scale. This year has been a milestone in other ways as well, as the business received the Emerging Business Award South Island at the New Zealand Trade Group (NZTG) gala awards dinner herd on 25 September at the Te Pae Convention Centre, Christchurch. “We didn’t know anything about the award until we were at the event. We went up to the conference where the awards were a part of to hear our name announced and couldn’t believe it.” The award is presented to a member who has been in business for less than 5 years, is a member of NZTG and adopted all business support services, partnerships and training from the organisation. “We have found being a member of NZTG was a very positive thing to do. They’ve got proven processes and programmes that helped us establish great system to support growth in the company.” Winning an industry award in September was a highlight in what has been a very busy year for Cowley Electrical Dairy & Pumps (CEDP). The company has three branches across Otago and Southland and won the NZ Trade Group award for the highest wholesale growth among the group’s South Island members. NZTG is a support network for electricians and has more than 250 members throughout New Zealand. Each CEDP branch has experienced tradesmen who are supported by a retail store and workshop supplying and servicing trusted brands. Services offered by CEDP include plant maintenance, domestic and industrial electrical, refrigeration, pumps, new builds, reticulation design and installation and effluent systems. Co-director Jared Cowley, who is based in Balclutha, says the award related to the company’s wholesale expenditure for the 2022-2023 financial year and was partly a reflection of some large contracts the company had undertaken, but is also the result of the overall high volume of work. “This award is for the member that achieved the highest increase in percentage of wholesaler spend across primary trade accounts for the year. We are thrilled to win this award. Two large projects completed were related to the installation of biomass boilers, one for Danone at Clydevale and the other for Fonterra’s cheese plant in Stirling, South Otago. For the Fonterra project, CEDP was contracted by the main contractor Pioneer Energy to undertake the full electrical fit-out of the system which was an eight month project requiring up to 10 to 12 CEDP tradesmen.” “We were really pleased to get the contract; Fonterra have been good to work with and they have been great at supporting local businesses.” Prior to this, CEDP completed a similar project for Danone which has also converted to a biomass boiler, and has been contracted to install a smaller scale boiler for a sawmill in Mataura. Despite the volatility in the dairy industry, CEDP’s workload remains buoyant, with the winter off season being a busy time as it works through dairy shed upgrades, milking machine tests and planned maintenance around the regions. CEDP install Realcold’s Gree glycol refrigeration systems in dairy sheds because of their quality and performance which is much better than conventional units, as well as being necessary to cool milk in vats faster to meet new regulations introduced in 2018. CEDP has found the Realcold Gree units to be the most technically advanced with the lowest energy input and the highest output that they can procure. In addition to the boiler contracts, the company has been working on large plants such as Alliance and Daiken during their winter shutdowns, as well as experiencing increased demand for the installation of domestic heat pumps. Other significant projects have included a new 54 bail dairy shed near Gore, Tyreland’s new building in Balclutha, and electrical work for the rebuild of Clutha Valley Primary School. “It’s been busy because we’ve had some good projects on the go, and in saying that things are looking up for the future as well. There’s plenty of work around.” To cap off the great year, CEDP has won the Clutha District Council contract for the Greenfield Rural Water Scheme pipeline, pump stations and reservoir project. Expected to take about 12 to 18 months to complete, the scheme will provide an increase in water quantity, better continuity of supply and improved water quality that will comply with new drinking water standards.
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