Page 50 - HW July 2020

then as now
July 2010’s captains of industry – John Beveridge, Gordon Buswell, Rod Caust, John Hartmann, Kevin Marevich and Brent Waldron.
Waldron for Carters, Gordon Buswell for ITM, John Hartmann for Mitre 10 and for PlaceMakers, John Beveridge.
Overall, according to our captains of industry (above), the half year to June 2010 had been building somewhat erratically towards bettering a disappointing 2009.
In terms of the rest of the year, with some reservations, our panel was in broad agreement that the second half of 2010 would be better than in 2009, but certainly no boom...
e reality was that consents in the last four months of 2010 would drop into the negative and, although 2010 de nitely improved on a soft 2009, tthe value of building work put in place would fall again in 2011...
In terms of our retail and merchant heads, still chu ed at having stolen the Tory Street site from under Mitre 10’s nose and with an eye rmly on increasing his share of trade, Rod Caust listed as a key achievement for 2010 the opening of Bunnings’ NZ Trade Centre in East Tamaki, the rst move in an ongoing bid for trade business.
Gordon Buswell declined to single out 2010 as a year of achievements, instead saying it had been about “maintaining capacity and capability within the group”. He said: “We have
avoided the temptation to cut costs to maintain pro ts when those capabilities are critical to our future plans and take time to reinstate.”
Asked what he would have done di erently so far that year, Gordon said he “would probably have taken a longer holiday in January...”
Moving to Mitre 10, in a climate he described as a “new economic environment”, John Hartmann said the last year at the co-op had been about investing “a great deal of resource in preparation for our next phase of growth”.
For his part, a bit more than a year into the job, John Beveridge singled out PlaceMakers’ new leadership team and talented new Branch Operators as cornerstones of this period.
In terms of where they all are now, Kevin Marevich is still leading BuildLink.
Having left NZ in 2011, Rod Caust is still in Aussie with Bunnings as General Manager Commercial.
Brent Waldron (Carters CEO 2010-2012) is now back with Anglo American in the UK as CFO of Bulk Commodities.
Gordon Buswell (ITM CEO 2001-2014) has a number of directorships and board memberships and is still trying hard to make time to surf.
John Hartmann (Mitre 10 CEO 2010-2013) recently left his reimagined True Value cooperative for Bed Bath & Beyond.
Last but not least, John Beveridge (PlaceMakers CEO 2009-
2013) has a range of directorships including window fabrication business Design Windows.
Staying with our July 2010 magazine, Tracy Key, 2008’s Young Retailer of the Year (4), was reporting on her travel prize to visit the 2010 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas.
Today, in her 16th year at the store, Tracy is Invercargill MEGA’s GM.
Back then she was struck by the massive size of the show – booths were numbered 100 to 12,999 – then Store Manager at Mitre 10 MEGA Invercargill, Tracy had a lot of ground to cover.
Tracy was quick to recommend others to enter the Hardware Awards: “ ank you to Bud Little for suggesting the Las Vegas Show as a suitable show option and a sincere thank you to Andrea and Simon Little for honouring my prize as Young Retailer of the Year 2008.”
You may recall that the Hardware Awards took a year o in 2009, with a change of publisher for NZ Hardware Journal.
is year, given 2020’s exceptional circumstances, we also considered taking the Hardware awards o the agenda but were convinced otherwise by our chosen industry.
anks for the support – see you on 4 November 2020!
Tracy Key, 2008 Young Retailer of the Year, receives her award from Neil Watkins, long time Country Manager of Selleys (and now Country Manager NZ at Dulux Powder & Industrial Coatings).
48 NZHJ | JULY 2020
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz