| 107 Jason Gorton Building BUILDING Proudly supporting Jason Gorton Building Ltd Heating & Ventilation Electrical Plumbing Heat Pumps Gas- tting Solar PV Power & Hot Water Drainlaying 20 Bay Rd, Invercargill PHONE 03 21 57077 Southland & Lakes Districts www.pbsnz.com Jeremy M E N Z I E S P A I N T I N G ltd. Interior & Exterior Painting, incl Roofs jeremymenziespainting@gmail.com Contact No. 022-010-4524 100% Southland Owned & Operated CARPETS • VINYL • WOOD • DRAPES • BLINDS 112 Spey Street, Invercargill | 03 218 2822 alllaycarpets.co.nz T T Russell Fredric Diversity key to ongoing success The ability to turn its hand to almost any kind of building work has helped Jason Gorton Building find its place in a changing construction market. Established in 2015, the Invercargill company employs 15 staff and works in commercial, residential and transportable construction, along with insulated panel and concrete work. Its workload is generally split evenly between commercial and residential projects. A Registered Master Builder, Licensed Building Practitioners and SiteWise Green verified, the company provides services across Southland, the Queenstown Lakes District, Central Otago and beyond. Director Jason Gorton says about 90% of the company’s current work comprises new builds, including commercial projects. “We’ve found ourselves quite busy with work and good jobs too: good solid new builds and multiple commercial jobs.” The company recently completed a 2000sqm tilt-slab manufacturing facility for Roofing Industries. The building includes two gantry cranes and a two-storey office block with tiled floors and an architectural finish. Completed in two stages over about 18 months, the project allowed Roofing Industries to begin manufacturing before work started on the office block. Jason Gorton Building is also extending and renovating the former Invercargill Glass and Mirror premises, almost doubling its size. The company has found a place in the light-commercial market between smaller builders and contractors focused on large industrial projects. “If it comes through the door and it’s an option to do it, then we work it out and turn our hand to it. We’ve managed to get growth by being able to take on projects a lot of builders wouldn’t probably look into.” The varied workload gives its builders experience in all aspects of construction, from About 90% of the company’s current work comprises new builds, including commercial projects. initial earthworks through to handing over the keys. Jason believes this helps staff see the bigger picture, while the company retains oversight of the entire process. Four apprentices are working within the team, while two staff have recently celebrated 10 years with the company. Jason prefers taking apprentices directly from school and developing their skills within the business. “It’s definitely easier to teach someone to be quicker or faster at what they do than it is to teach quality. We try and aim for the quality side of it first, and then the time comes when they get more competent.” Alongside its conventional building work, the company is producing transportable homes under the Seven² [seven squared] name. Plans for a 3500sqm prefabricated modular housing factory at Kennington are still in the pipeline, but the facility has been held off while the market settles from its 2021 post-Covid peak. Seven² is meanwhile building transportable houses from commercial yard space. “We’ve had a really good uptake in the market; it’s been really good.” While commercial work has been strong in recent years, Jason is seeing renewed interest in reasonably priced residential new builds. He is a strong advocate for well-insulated homes and believes higher building code H1 requirements are already producing benefits in Southland. He is also an advocate for doing work well and getting it right to repeatably produce a quality product.
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