54 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Road Materials Workgear Ltd T T Kim Bowden A 70-year Dunedin success story… In 1956, the focus was firmly on the roading sector, servicing crews across the lower South Island and West Coast. BUILDING THE FUTURE. blundstone.co.nz NZPRD_26_03 Seventy years after Septimus Owen opened a small Dunedin shop selling work boots, overalls and bitumen, his great‑grandchildren are now leading the business, supplying uniforms and safety gear across a wide range of industries. Today, the company has retail stores in Dunedin and Cromwell, a warehouse operation, and a growing online channel. But in 1956, the focus was firmly on the roading sector, servicing crews across the lower South Island and West Coast. In the early days, “everybody just wore overalls…there were no uniforms like we have today,” third‑generation owner Roger Owen says. Safety gear was simple: “safety glasses, gloves and earmuffs…you got provided it, and you didn’t have to wear it if you didn’t want to”. The business showed an early willingness to adapt. With imported luxuries hard to get in the post-war years, two of Septimus’s sons started blending lavender water — a basic perfume — under the name House of de Cospera. They sourced lavender oil from England and alcohol from Speight’s Brewery, bottled it in purple glass and sold “thousands of bottles” for one shilling and sixpence. Road workers buying new overalls could grab a cheap treat for their wives on the way out. If the products changed over time, the customer approach didn’t. Roger remembers walking into the shop as a young man and finding staff “sitting at a wee table…smoking and having a cup of tea”. It was informal, but customers always came first. “If the customer was in the shop, it was all to do with customer relations…it worked very successfully for us,” he says. By the 1980s, larger players had moved into bitumen, and the Owens made a call to step away from that side of the business, with Roger and his wife Anne leading that shift. Now, the fourth generation is in charge, with all three of Roger and Anne’s children in the business, bringing skills across finance, technology and design. The business employs 29 staff and continues to grow, including plans for expansion into Christchurch. Uptown Workroom, also part of the familyrun group, offers embroidery, screen printing and corporate merchandise services, allowing garments to be branded in-house. Much of the work is now business-tobusiness, supplying uniforms and safety gear across industries from construction and transport through to hospitality, schools and sports teams. Managing director Calum says customer expectations have shifted significantly. “There’s literally hundreds of options,” he says. “But it’s about understanding what customers actually need, rather than just trying to sell them something. We want to be doing business with people who want to do business with us.” Good staff are key to this approach. Anne says that means hiring “people who can talk to customers and have a bit of a sense of humour”, and making sure customers aren’t met with “blank stares” when they walk in. For Roger and Anne, who ran the business for more than 40 years, seeing the next generation take over has been a point of pride. Many of their customers now span generations as well, with children and grandchildren of earlier clients still coming through the door. Despite the growth and change, the family says the core of the business remains the same. “If you constantly strive to look after the customer,” Roger says, “the rest will look after itself.”
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