A coffee with Brett Hamilton, General Manager from Craftbuilt

1. Who is Brett Hamilton? What is your role?

My role here, as General Manager, is to manage the daily running of the three entities, including a relatively hands on role in contract pricing and project management.

The three entities are:

• Techlam - techlam.co.nz
• Craftbuilt - craftbuilt.co.nz
• Hall of Flame - hallofflame.co.nz

 

2. Brett as the General Manager of three distinct businesses – Please expand on what those businesses do?

 

Craftbuilt

Craftbuilt was the original business set up by my parents in the early 90's. This business was predominantly building related but quickly diversified into bespoke timber laminating along with specialised joinery. Craftbuilt still manufactures and markets it's products today, mainly specialising in Fretwork, Fire Surrounds and Timber Louvers and Shutters for the residential market in NZ.

 

Techlam

The Techlam brand evolved from our Laminating experience within Craftbuilt. In 2007, we rebranded and split the laminating division away from Craftbuilt to create a clearer distinction between a predominantly retail market (which Craftbuilt was servicing) and realigned the focus fully on the Trade and wholesale markets. This enabled us to pursue the 'Commercial' side of the market and have since been involved in hundreds of projects of all sizes around NZ and also offshore. Techlam would now be around 95% of our business today. The bulk of our product is distributed through a network of resellers.

 

Hall of Flame

Hall of Flame was sort of 'born' by accident around 1999-2000. We had been manufacturing fire surrounds for the NZ market for quite some time and saw a niche in the Horowhenua and Kapiti area that was not serviced very well in the home heating area. This move proved to be extremely successful, and still provides a key service to the area today. This entity is essentially separate from the manufacturing side and runs by itself.

 

3. As a manufacturer supplying structural products into the building sector especially laminated Frames, Beams and Flooring products – what comments can you make on the strength of the construction sector in 2014/15? In and out of Christchurch?

The market is definitely picking up (particularly since the first quarter of 2014) and we have seen a positive shift with new construction in Christchurch. The market in Christchurch is still in my opinion pretty tight, with price really governing the decision makers. We have however seen a distinct change in this attitude in the last couple of months. As the market has picked up, delivery times along with rapid order turnarounds have influenced the decisions being made.

The rest of NZ is still very irregular, with the exception of Auckland which has a strong market, and building (mainly in the residential sector) very strong.

 

4. Brett – having worked with you as a Client. I know the culture at the Craftbuilt site is really strong. As an employer of a diverse group of people including sales, manufacturing and trades – what are the biggest culture management challenges for your business? What advice would you give anyone who wants to develop or maintain a good culture?

Not really sure how to answer this one! I guess from a management side, we believe in as much transparency as possible with the staff. I have found this does create buy-in to the team culture. As with any business, there are always challenges with staff, and we definitely are not exempt from this.

Really my only advice would be, be honest with your staff. Keep them updated with what's happening and they will respond. We have a goal of having all staff coming to work because they want to, not because they have to.

 

5. Within manufacturing businesses in Manawatu there is an increasing awareness of LEAN principles. What LEAN manufacturing processes or principles do Craftbuilt use? Is it working for you?

We started LEAN implementation approximately 3 years ago. This is obviously a continuous process and we have a culture of continuous improvement.

The important side to this is that staff become aware of how much 'waste' there is in a manufacturing environment. Waste is not just product, one of the biggest wastes is staff time. Increasing awareness of this enables staff to realise the importance of working efficiently and this in turn hugely increases their Non-Productive/ Productive ratio.

 

6. Regional and Provincial locations often suffer labour challenges when working families migrate to bigger employment markets in "the big smoke".

What shortages or employment challenges have you had to overcome by being situated in Levin? Or are there advantages for you?

We have not really been affected by this yet (fingers crossed) it does happen though. We did have some of our junior plant staff relocate to Australia 6 or so years ago when it looked pretty attractive over there.

 

7. Brett as a young General Manager – You manage both younger employees and employees who are significantly older than yourself. Have you faced challenges managing such a diverse group? What advice or feedback can you give others who may be facing managing diverse sets of people?

This always has it's challenges. Respect always works both ways.

I have always said that you cannot demand respect, you earn it. Older staff have the added advantage of being young, and being old! Someone like myself has not had the life experiences that the older generation has had and we need to respect and learn from that.

There is also a lot to be gained from the fresh approach of the younger generation. I believe that this is partly why we have a strong culture within the business, as we have the generations working together.

 

8. As an export business – how is the $NZD affecting your business? Are there gains, losses or other threats for you as a result of the strong $NZD?

To be honest, we generally export through a third party, and are not directly affected by the $NZD. The likelihood of securing major contracts does decrease with the $NZD rising against major currencies. Export is a small component of our business so we do not currently see issues for us here.

 

9. As a manufacturing business operating from Levin - What business challenges or opportunities do you see being based in a provincial town?

To be fair, the single biggest challenge, is securing quality staff. The pool is obviously much smaller in Horowhenua compared to Manawatu. Freight can sometimes be an issue, but we work closely with our freight vendors to eliminate this.

 

10. What economic or regional development would you like to see to support or encourage growth in Levin or your industry? Who does this activity now and how well is it being done?

I would like to see more support from the local body and also Horizons.

We currently are not the easiest area to set up business in, with often few incentives offered. Over the years, several businesses have set up elsewhere as a result. I guess there is always 2 or 3 sides to every situation though. We do however have a strong and established manufacturing sector in Levin, even compared to the size of the town which is great!