Tiny town’s engineering business ultimate New Zealand Made Hero

An engineering firm from a tiny South Taranaki town has beaten hundreds of other New Zealand companies to a top manufacturing award.

The Carac Group, an engineering specialist company in Eltham, is owned by John and Yvonne Burling who have won the Buy NZ Made Ultimate Hero Award for 2017. The award means the business is now considered one of the most innovative and successful New Zealand Made companies in the country.

‘‘I am absolutely elated, I didn’t believe it when we received the phone call,’’ John said.

The company, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, is best known for its trailer couplings and track grips.

‘‘A lot of car, truck and trailer and manufacturing have now left New Zealand and is mainly done overseas,’’ Burling said.

‘‘Eltham’s not that big of a place compared to some of the others but what we do here is unique.

‘‘When they rang on December 1 I thought they were pulling our leg.

‘‘It’s such an important award on a national level so this is a huge achievement, we’ve never won anything of this magnitude before, so this is a big deal.’’

Carac Group won the monthly NZ Made Hero award in October before becoming one of 12 finalists.

The award recognises companies that promote their NZ Made status but also excelling in other areas such as sustainability, employee satisfaction, innovation, domestic and international growth and diversification into new markets.

‘‘Never ever did I think we’d win this one, we were surprised to win the one in October,’’ Burling said. ‘‘Comparing the other 12 businesses to ours I didn’t think we had a show.’’ The final winner was chosen by a public voting system. ‘‘We only had a month to prepare for it but we got a lot of people on board,’’ he said

Burling said after winning the award 2018 was shaping up to be busier than 2017 and they had a few new products in the pipeline.

For winning the award Carac received a trophy and certificate, artwork displaying their Ultimate Hero status and also an advertorial in a magazine of their choice.

‘‘This will be huge for us, we’ll have real credibility when dealing with other businesses and this will help promote NZ Made,’’ he said. ‘‘It just goes to show never give up on an idea and don’t take no for an answer.’’