62 | Coast firm taking on the challenges Sutherland Tyres supplies not only tyres, but fleet work, vehicle servicing, alignments, brakes and batteries. T T Aimee Wilson “It has been an interesting journey over the last 37 years – plenty to keep the heart rate up and some tough times too – not easy after the ’87 stock market crash.” TRANSPORT Sutherland Tyres Running a tyre company on the West Coast means having to face all kinds of challenging situations, as Westport’s Brian Sutherland explains. As the founder of Sutherland Tyres Westport, Brian can tell a few stories, and fortunately, despite the challenges, his business is still going strong after 37 years, thanks to his son and daughter. In 1988, Brian decided to start his own company after 14 years in the industry, and from day one he committed to marketing his business in proud pink. Pink vehicles and a pink building – it was the one colour he knew would stand out. Sutherland Tyres supplies not only tyres, but fleet work, vehicle servicing, alignments, brakes and batteries. Twenty years ago they added Warrant of Fitness. “It has been an interesting journey over the last 37 years – plenty to keep the heart rate up and some tough times too – not easy after the ’87 stock market crash,” Brian says. Not long after he started, they lost their only service truck for three months, after a head-on crash with another driver on the Fern Arch in the lower Buller Gorge. “There are traffic lights there now,” Brian says. There have been a few other accidents on the job too, including one where a staff member lost an eye “due to a tyre bar on an old demount Mack rim flipping around,” Brian recalls. Another incident involved an old DC3 alloy rim that disintegrated when inflated, resulting in a six- month Health & Safety investigation. “Although cleared, it taught us all a valuable lesson about safety – if it doesn’t fit in the inflation cage, it doesn’t get done,” Brian says. “The worker involved was more concerned about his cigarettes in his pocket being reduced to dust, than his broken jaw.” Then there was the devastating Cyclone Ita that hit the West Coast in April 2014, causing huge damage from Fox Glacier to Karamea. “Due to the high winds, one of our building’s roller doors blew in and was flapping in the wind, with very sharp edges. Luckily for us, a builder was over at New World securing their broken windows and was able to construct a frame to help pin the door back down and stop flapping. “The open door, in turn, helped the wind to rip the roof off one half of the building, letting in the rain that followed and causing a lot of damage to plant.” To secure the building, his son Craig borrowed a truck and trailer unit and parked it as close to the building as possible, occupying the entire footpath in front, and therefore blocking both the roller doors from the wind and potential thieves. “For the next three months, we operated out of half of our building, while the repairs were completed – glad we had a good insurance company.” In 1995, Brian finally received knee replacement surgery, after being injured working in 1974. It didn’t stop him fitting earthmover and truck tyres, at times in freezing and snowy weather at Stockton Mine, but eventually he wore that new knee out and in 2013 had to get another one. He and wife Alison have been retired for seven years now, but are still involved in the business. The day-to-day stuff is left in the hands of their son and daughter, Craig and Joanne.
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