Quality key for award winners
Quality builders and a high degree of service has been the key to success for construction firm ZB Homes Bay of Plenty.
The company has topped this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 list of the country’s fastest-growing businesses.
Managing director Rik Flowerday set up the business with his wife Fiona after moving to the Bay of Plenty from Australia’s Gold Coast three years ago with three small children.
‘‘I’ve always been passionate about property, I built my first speculative house when I was 21,’’ Flowerday said.
He took a calculated risk in 2014 and bought land on The Lakes subdivision in Tauranga, he said.
But he’d never seen the housing market growing as fast as it did.
‘‘I knew it was on the up but I don’t think anyone saw it taking off the way it did.
‘‘In 2014, a 500 square metre section in The Lakes was around $180,000, the same section today would be $300,000,’’ he said.
Flowerday said the fast growth of the business meant the company’s focus had switched from sales to systems operations.
‘‘Our initial business plan was to do 15 builds a year, and in our first year we did over 50 contracts.’’
ZB Homes Bay of Plenty now has about 30 building projects on the go at any one time and offers design-and-build, house-and-land and investment services.
This year, it will build around 70 houses in total.
Flowerday had to bring on a whole new team to keep up with growing demand and now employs 13 staff including a construction manager and supervisor in charge of hiring contract builders.
But a lack of land and builders throughout the country had made life tough and put pressure on the cost of building a house.
‘‘It’s not just land, all other house building costs have gone up as well.
‘‘So house sizes are starting to come back a bit,’’ Flowerday said.
‘‘Sales have increased and volume has increased but we haven’t let quality slip and that’s what we’ve tried to have as a point of difference.’’
A personalised experience was also a priority for all clients, he said.
The company uses an online scheduling tool and client interface, Buildertrend, that also has an app.
‘‘Clients have it all on their phone and can see where their house is at, see pictures the builders upload, send and see messages from suppliers, the builders, and us.
‘‘We couldn’t build the number of
"In 2014, a 500 square metre section in The Lakes was around $180,000, the same section today would be $300,000." ZB Homes managing director Rik Flowerday
houses we do without some system managing it all.’’ One of the most exciting houses being built currently is a cliff-top dream home, Flowerday said.
‘‘It’s a 300sqm house that has 180 degree sea views.
‘‘It’s about 20 metres above sea level and the front door is about 70 metres from the shoreline.
‘‘We get to build some really nice houses, from standard family homes in a subdivision to some ‘wow’ houses on a cliff-top. It’s pretty cool.’’