110 | T T Virginia Wright Company goes from strength to strength The Wright Build completed its first architectural build in Jack’s Point in 2018. “I saw a gap in the organisational side of construction and I wanted to start managing building projects with what I’d learnt in my degree.” The Wright Build BUILDING It was when spending his spare time helping to renovate old barns and oasthouses (hop kilns) in southeast England while studying for his degree in event management in 2008 that Nick Wright discovered his love for building. When he realised he couldn’t see a satisfying future working in the leisure and events sector he jumped at a friend’s suggestion to travel to New Zealand. Before long, he started the building apprenticeship he couldn’t get as an adult with a degree in England, working on two luxury townhouses on Queenstown Hill. As soon as he was signed off he began contracting, and in 2014 he established his own company, The Wright Build. In the 10 years since, the company has gone from strength to strength, which he attributes partly to the skills he learnt while doing his management degree, combined with straightforward ambition and hard work. “I saw a gap in the organisational side of construction and I wanted to start managing building projects with what I’d learnt in my degree. It’s only recently it’s become more prominent in our industry.” Nick puts that down to the supply interruptions that came with Covid, which meant builders had to plan ahead, given they could no longer count on orders arriving within a day or two. The Wright Build found itself well ahead of the game, having quickly moved from concentrating on renovations and small alterations to full house builds as the company’s reputation for good project management grew. “People know that time is money in any construction project, especially on large homes, so we kept on getting house after house and built some beautiful places, actually,” says Nick. Nick applies his organisational skills and understanding of time management to every job, which means sub-contractors and suppliers get plenty of notice and have the time to shop around for products, allowing them to be very competitive. His fine eye for detail carries through to site tidiness and building finishes. “I’m meticulous, so I’m fair but pretty hard on all my subbies to ensure we stay consistent across our builds,” he says. Nick is grateful for his time contracting on high-end and commercial builds around Queenstown, and with ‘old-school builder’ Russell Foster turning old stone huts and rundown dwellings further afield into beautiful homes. That well-rounded experience feeds into everything he does today and contrasts with a lot of new builders, who may have only ever worked on housing company builds. “They arrive to a concrete slab and effectively put a jigsaw puzzle together, but I was lucky enough that it wasn’t as easy as that. “We had to make things work with old buildings and things that weren’t perfect from the get go,” says Nick. With its first architectural build in Jack’s Point successfully achieved in 2018, The Wright Build has steadily grown to its current team of 12 builders, including three apprentices. The company is now based in Cromwell covering most of Central Otago and Nick and his team are still as happy doing tricky renovations as they are complex new builds. In 2023, Nick added a development arm, ‘Ram Projects’, to his business, which is building four luxury apartments in the Highlands Motorsport Park using The Wright Build builders. “Highlands have built a racetrack with multiple buildings around it. People can store their race cars underneath their first-floor dwelling and have the luxury of driving them out and practising on the racetrack, which they look out over,” explains Nick. It is a passion project for Nick, who unsurprisingly is a car-racer himself. It’s an important part of The Wright Build’s work as a full-service design and build contractor ready to take on projects of any nature. It is family owned and operated and as comfortable building the Early Learning Centre currently under construction as doing the fit-out for the Monte Cristo Winery.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=