Page 11 - OPE November 2019

INSIGHT
NZ Hire Industry
HIANZ’S 2019 CONFERENCE
in Hamilton was, by all accounts, a
bumper affair with record numbers of attendees and some top speakers including New Zealander of the Year, Mike King, and in-demand Nigel Latta.
Business sessions and workshops were presented by Karl Varley (“Building Powerful & Productive Teams & Simple Strategies to Increase Profit”); Westpac Chief Economist Dominick Stephens (a “State of the Nation”); the ever-popular Debbie Mayo-Smith (“How to Ease your Work-Life Imbalance” & “Massive Yet Effortless Productivity Gains”); and Janet Brothers on occupational health
& safety.
If you weren’t there, their presentations are freely available on the HIANZ website which is a nice touch (at www.hianz.net.nz/ conference-2019-2/).
The black-tie Hire Excellence Awards Dinner & Show hosted by principal sponsor Youngman Richardson & Genie is an important part of every HIANZ conference and 2019 was no different.
Gold Medals were awarded to three Christchurch operations – Access Solutions, Hire KING and sibling Party Warehouse – while Horowhenua Hire was
Hire KING Christchurch and stablemate Party Warehouse took away Gold Medals at this year’s HIANZ Awards.
awarded a Silver Medal, which is no mean feat in itself.
STRIKING GOLD IN CANTERBURY
Hire KING Christchurch and stablemate Party Warehouse both “took it to the next level” (as they say on Discovery Channel) and surpassed the Silver Medal awarded last year to Party Warehouse.
A Director of both operations, Mark Bacon, says he’s “stoked” with the accolades and pays tribute to Fabian Kulpe and the
Hire KING Christchurch team who put a lot of work into their audit, adding that it’s well worth the effort to take time out and assess systems and procedures.
Now with a Central Lakes branch of Hire KING in Cromwell, Mark says business is good, despite the Christchurch market being “a bit of a tough one in the last couple of years with the downturn after the earthquake rebuild.”
Still, he adds, the Christchurch market has seen a bit of a rebound recently, while the new
Hire KING branch in Cromwell has been “just crazy” thanks to the burgeoning housing market down there.
Can an independent compete with the big guys? “I think so, yeah. We can make decisions really quickly and people like dealing with someone who’s got a bit more skin in the game and who might not be, you know, an Australian company...”
Small is definitely beautiful when your main strengths are quality of customer service and quality of equipment, believes Mark Bacon.
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NOVEMBER2019 NZOUTDOORPOWEREQUIPMENT 011