Entrepreneur first to raise Wahine alarm
Co-founder and chairman of Interlock Industries, Stuart Young, was the first to raise the alarm about the stricken ferry Wa¯ hine in 1968.
From his home in Breaker Bay, he and his wife, Jenny, saw the ship on the wrong side of Barrett Reef, and moving swiftly sideways.
‘‘She appeared to be coming in straight towards the beach. She was so close she was just a blaze of lights.’’
Having lived in Breaker Bay most of his life (initially in a tent while his father built a garage – and then a house – for the family to live in), Stuart was accustomed to southerly gales. He recalled as a child holding on to the guy ropes of the tent to keep it upright in storms.
So he knew just how extraordinary the storm of April 10, 1968, was, with visibility ‘‘atrocious’’ and the wind as not howling but ‘‘high pitch screaming’’.
At 6.30am that day, Stuart and Jenny saw the Wa¯ hine in Chaffers Passage, on the Breaker Bay side of the reef, facing the houses (a sight witnessed by many in the bay but never accepted by the official court of inquiry). It was clear she was in serious trouble and Stuart immediately phoned the police.
Later in the day, Stuart, with his brother Marten, launched their small trailer-sailor at Seatoun beach to try to assist in the rescue efforts. However, the size of the breakers was such that the dinghy was quickly pitchpolled and they were lucky to escape with their lives.
By the time of the Wa¯ hine disaster in 1968, Stuart had co-founded Interlock Industries, a highly successful IP-driven, export-led company based in Wellington between 1961 and 2001 that would go on to be recognised as one of the early success stories of New Zealand manufacturing.
Stuart is described by former business academic and now University of Otago Emeritus Professor Colin Campbell-Hunt as a ‘‘precious entrepreneur . . . who showed that New Zealand could build world-class businesses despite our small size’’.
‘‘There was quite a team of us at Victoria University of Wellington working on outstanding export-successful NZ businesses.
‘‘Interlock was pretty much the first off the block.’’
Campbell-Hunt says that through studying firms like Interlock Industries, his colleagues at VUW, Massey and Otago universities were able to develop new theory on the ways that small firms could be competitive in world markets – theory, he points out, that could not exist until people like Stuart showed how it could be done.
He says the company was one of a small number of New Zealand businesses that thrived through the radical restructuring of the economy in the mid1980s.
‘‘Where so many other firms went to the wall, Interlock took full advantage of the greater freedoms to build a business that was fully competitive with the best that the world could offer.
‘‘His contributions to New Zealand, and our understanding of international business, will always be second to none.‘‘
In the 1960s and early 1970s the word ‘‘startup’’ hadn’t been coined in relation to companies (the word was first used by Forbes magazine to describe a budding company in 1976). But Stuart was already leading Interlock along a highly innovative path towards export.
The company, which started in Stuart’s backyard in 1961, moved to Miramar in 1969 (operating out of buildings now owned by Peter Jackson), with 550 employees across three factories in Miramar, and Auckland.
Interlock was a highly successful partnership between its two cofounders; Ron Davis (the ‘‘inventor’’ – generating new
IP) and Stuart, the ‘‘marketer’’, who ensured ongoing inventions were patented all over the world so that the company kept ahead of its global competitors through invention and smart marketing.
Each man respected the other’s abilities as being so different to his own, having total confidence in the other’s ability to run his side of the business.
The company invented and exported aluminium window hardware – in particular a new kind of friction stay.
Stuart was highly protective of Interlock’s IP – fighting and winning patent infringement battles in the UK and Japan.
The company was unusual for its time in other ways too – everyone was on firstname terms, employees were encouraged to make decisions and to raise any matter they wanted, and – most importantly – to be honest with each other.
The company operated a profit-sharing bonus system and a medical insurance scheme, arranged free influenza vaccinations for anyone who wanted them and offered opportunities for staff to train and retrain at all levels.
Tony Gledhill, who joined Interlock as an accountant, and rose to chairman after Stuart retired, said that Stuart was a major reason he stayed on at the company.
‘‘His encouragement for me to complete my university studies was a measure of his character, that he would allow someone to succeed, and would invest in key staff.’’
The ‘‘corporate philosophy’’ was straightforward; stay close to the customers, keep it simple, seek continuous improvement, develop people, work as a team, strive for excellence, and make it fun.
For Stuart, employees were extended family – he would walk around the entire factory every Monday morning, speaking to people individually.
At age 15, Stuart lost his father in the 1951 Wellington to Lyttleton yacht race, giving up his dreams of becoming an architect and leaving school to take up (with his brother) a building apprenticeship to support their mother and younger sister.
Despite the yachting tragedy that took his father, sailing became a huge part of Stuart’s life.
He would build the first catamaran in Wellington, and sailed a succession of trailer-sailors and keelers.
Stuart was hugely family-focused, and holidays centred around yachting. The family sailed to the Pacific and back, twice.
Stuart died peacefully on February 17 after a long illness, surrounded by family.
He is survived by Jenny – his wife of 59 years – four children, Vanessa, Melanie, Elliott and Oliver, plus grandchildren. He was until recently an active Rotarian, and enjoyed chess and music.
Stuart was also a New Zealand badminton title-holder, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand and the NZ Institute of Management, and a director of the Reserve Bank from 1994-99.
Sources: University of Otago Emeritus Professor Colin Campbell-Hunt; Created to Innovate – a History of Interlock Group 1961-2001 (Diane Beaglehole 2001); Success in New Zealand Business (written by Paul Smith and published by Hodder Moa Beckett 1996); The Wahine Disaster (Max Lambert and Jim Bartley, published by Fontana 1969); Young family