Hire business claims national award
Venture that started in small workshop hailed by judges
Abusiness that began in a New Plymouth single-bay workshop six years ago has won a national industry award.
Kiwi Hire Group, owned and operated by Brad and Christine Potter, received three awards in this year’s annual Hire Association of New Zealand — Hire Excellence awards, including the prestigious Hire Company of the year for turnover under $2.5 million award.
Christine says the awards were the first she and Brad had entered, “and we are very proud to have won best in our category”.
As well as the Hire Company of the year award, Kiwi Hire Group also received the People and Culture and the Company Image Awards.
Christine says the judges’ comments identified the positive culture in their business, something she and Brad are very proud of.
One of the judge’s comments highlighted the sense of belonging Kiwi Hire workers demonstrated.
“Kiwi Hire Group has worked hard to develop a ‘family’ culture in their business with the team. Their relationship with their roots and values flows out across the team . . . There was a sense of belonging in the whole company.”
Judges were impressed with the initiative in looking to find ways to encourage Ma¯ori into their workplace, says Christine.
“The judges’ comments said they were super impressed with the acknowledgement of our tangata whenua and whakapapa and incorporating values that considered our heritage.”
They also identified the sense of pride team members had in their company and the consistency of branding across the company.
“The judges were really impressed how everyone on the team wears the company-branded uniform in varying styles with pride. Even the portable toilet technician was donned in the uniform whilst sucking and servicing toilets.”
Christine says she and Brad are very proud of the success of their business, and team, all of which have come a long way in the last six years. At the start, it was just Brad and Christine, with three things for hire — a woodchipper, a furniture trailer and a concrete mixer.
Now they have hundreds of things available for hire, a team of 10 plus themselves, and have relocated from that single-bay workshop to a 4000sq m site including a large showroom, a five-bay workshop and a purposebuilt wash bay site on Devon Rd in
Waiwhakaiho.
Brad and Christine won’t be resting on their laurels, and Christine says they are already looking to the future.
“The next award bracket up opens us up to competing with the national leaders in our industry and we want to give it a fighting chance in the next couple of years.”