Waikato Business News | December 1, 2023

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16 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS DECEMBER 2023 Leading plumbing company wraps up its year of celebrations FB Hall & Co Ltd in Hamilton is marking its centenary this year. It’s not just a celebration of 100 years of success for this leading plumbing and drainage company … it’s a time to appreciate the past, enjoy the present and embrace the future. FB Hall & Co’s unwavering dedication to old fashioned integrity and trust has earned the company an enviable reputation throughout the region, but it was winning the coveted title Waikato Master Plumber of the Year 2023 title that was the cherry on top in the company’s centenary year. Manager Joe Calkin was delighted. “This is the major award for Waikato … the timing couldn’t be better.” Joe was already fully qualified on the tools when he joined the company in 1996 having done his apprenticeship and put in a few years with his family’s business in Turangi, Calkin Plumbing. He joined FB Hall & Co Ltd after moving to Hamilton and became manager in 2015 when he took the role on after longtime company stalwart Ken Douglas retired. In 2003, when an opportunity arose to become a shareholder, he jumped at it. “I was at the point where a decision had to be made – do I start my own business or commit to this one? I made the decision to stay and have never regretted it.” Today, he and his team steer a staff of 47. All are keenly aware that their 100th anniversary reflects a century during which challenges have been turned into opportunities and setbacks into comebacks. The company applies a tried and true approach to all types of plumbing. At any time when a client or staff call the workshop, there can be 150 years of experience in the office ready to bounce ideas off and help through a sticky situation. Their field of work includes domestic bathroom, kitchen and hot water installations, domestic and commercial maintenance, gas-fitting, drain-laying, FB Hall & Co Ltd manager Joe Calkin holds the company’s precious founding document in front of the firm’s photographic history board. roof repairs, and sheet metal work, as well as small stainless steel fabrication together with large scale contracts. Just a few of the more recent contracts they have completed across some of the city’s most significant developments include, Tetra Pak, Innovation Park new building, Waikeria Prison, the Union Square development, the University’s Pa project, and Tainui Project Hauata-ACC. Fuelled by their predecessors’ vision that anything is possible, they continue to forge ahead as leaders in their field. The company’s 100th anniversary celebrations turned its workshop space into party central for the occasion. COMPANY HISTORY Pictured with the company’s Model T Ford are, from left, Burt Hall (the founder’s son), Mrs Beatrice Hall, George Hayes, Bill Cannell, Ted Coombes, foreman Jack Wainscott, founder and manager Jack Hall, Burt Asplin in the car (the company’s first apprentice), and George Kernow. F.B. HALL & Co. Ltd Since 1923 The FB Hall & Co story starts in 1923, at a time New Zealand was growing its economy in the wake of World War One and new immigrants from England, Fredrick Benjamin ‘Fred’ Hall and his wife Beatrice, were settling into life in Hamilton. Records of the foundation meeting for the company, dated 1st September 1923, list Fred Hall, Jack A Wainscott and Frances L Lound as being present and said it was agreed that all three would draw wages of seven pounds a week as company directors, amounting to around NZ$14.40 in today’s terms. Fred had gained his engineering and plumbing skills in England, and Jack Wainscott, who became the foreman, was an adept sheet metal worker and solderer, soldering cream cans for the Matangi Dairy Factory Glaxo plant. The trio started operating from premises in Alexandra St, serving the region while also providing products for the dairy industry, notably manufacturing large dairy cylinders. Plumbing a century ago had its challenges. Water pipes were run in galvanised metal with lead basin connectors, soil and wastes in either lead or cast iron, drainage in glazed earthenware with cement joints, and excavation was done with a team of drainlayers and labourers. Transport
DECEMBER 2023 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 17 BUSINESS SHOWCASE SHAREHOLDERS’ COMMENTS Shareholders at FB Hall & Co Ltd have a much in common - an impressive longevity of tenure and optimism for the future. Here is what they have to say … FB Hall & Co Ltd manager Joe Calkin is the longest-standing of the current bunch of shareholders, taking up his place in 2015 after the retirement of longtime company man Ken Douglas. Joe joined the company as a qualified plumber in 1996. He has since had a range of roles, including running sites until 2007, then moving into the foreman’s role before becoming the company’s contracts quantity surveyor two years later, handling all the finer details of negotiating, pricing and managing contacts. Like his fellow shareholders, Joe says FB Hall & Co is a special place to work. Staff tend to stay for years, even many who test the waters elsewhere come back. He says: “That is largely because the goals of this company are more generational than purely financial. The focus is as much on caretaking the company and its staff as it is for ringing every dollar.” Mike Wilson began his 27 years with the company as an apprentice. He says the opportunities provided by FB Hall & Co across many different aspects of the industry meant he never wanted to leave. He has moved through the ranks in the ensuing years and is now the company’ contracts quantity surveyor. “I guess you could say I’m institutionalised,” he laughs, “but in reality, this company has given me every opportunity to try different business avenues, which I have always appreciated. It’s meant I have never had the urge to look elsewhere. “I enjoy managing the contract side of things, running the teams of contract workers and dealing with clients, some of them I’ve known for more than 20 years.” Bruce Wallace reckons he’s the ‘old man’ amongst the company crew. He joined the team 23 years ago after being in the accounting game and says it’s the company culture that makes FB Hall & Co the place it is. Now nudging retirement, he says: “It is the sort of company that I’ve been happy to contribute to over the years … the sort of place where I feel I can do my bit to help younger fellas coming through.” Bruce tackles pricing around the smaller jobs. When he joined the company, gas-fitting was something he specialised in. He’s found fulfilment in growing that side of things and likes the way the company has helped him to fulfil his own career ambitions. Jason McLaren’s tenure with FB Hall & Co goes back to 1998. He started his apprenticeship that year, and apart from a brief OE, has worked for the company ever since. Having worked his way up, he is now part of the team pricing and running the bigger commercial contracts. It’s something he finds presents the challenges he enjoys, and working with a great bunch of colleagues makes coming to work a pleasure. “There’s a really good vibe around here and a great bunch of guys to work with. It’s almost like an extended family here,” he says. Like his peers, he appreciates a business structure that makes becoming a shareholder a possibility. Taking up that opportunity was a natural progression for him once he had put time in on the tools and was looking around for his ‘what’s next’. Glen Mackintosh began his tenure with FB Hall & Co in 1997, starting as an apprentice and working through to 2004 Skin in the game … FB Hall & Co’s fine bunch of shareholders. They are, from left, Jason McLaren, James Nixon, Glen Mackintosh, Mike Wilson, Bruce Wallace, Matt Hart and Joe Calkin. when he did a two-year OE, much of it in Scotland. He came back to FB Hall & Co for another four to five years, before moving to another company for about 19 months. “Then I came back, and have stayed ever since,” he says. “The grass isn’t always greener elsewhere, and sometimes it takes a move away to recognise that.” He enjoys the ‘half-office, half-site work’ nature of his role, taking on compliance and gas-fitting work and valuing the opportunities to work on larger projects that working for a bigger company offers. The company’s focus on a good work/ life balance has added to that appeal, and made his decision to become a shareholder a very easy one. It took a few years working abroad for James Nixon to fully appreciate what a great company FB Hall & Co is. He started with them as an apprentice in 2004, then took off overseas, working in Canada until coming home in 2013. “Being away made me realise what a good company this really is,” he says. “I think it’s because all of us have been on the tools, we’ve started at the bottom and worked our way up. It’s not a heavily corporate structure … here, all the owners have done their time in the trade and that makes a big difference.” That element, plus a working environment that offers the rigors of the bigger commercial contracts he enjoys, made James feel it was the place for him long-term. Matt Hart first started with FB Hall & Co in 1997, completing his apprenticeship and working in the company for 13 years before testing the waters elsewhere. However, it wasn’t long before he was back, this time determined to stay. Like other staffers, he has a deep appreciation for the wide range of work experiences FB Hall & Co has provided. “The variety they offered was very appealing. Because it’s a big company, we cover a lot of bases. We do a lot across the commercial sector … jobs you don’t get an opportunity to do with a smaller firm.” Matt also likes the fact the company structure with its revolving shareholder opportunities means that there is a real career pathway should incoming staffers elect to go that way. was by pushbike, hand cart or, if lucky, a model-T Ford truck. Hard times hit around 1927 as the Great Depression of the 1930s loomed, but FB Hall & Co survived. By 1937, it was decided things were going well enough to allow the company directors to take two weeks’ holiday each year. By 1939, at the onset of World War Two, the company had one Ford car (290 pounds), one Ford truck (363 pounds), and one bicycle (4 pounds, 16 shillings and 3 pence) on the books. They moved across the road into larger premises equipped with a showroom and continued to enjoy a period of growth, based largely on the increased demand for agricultural produce needed for the war effort. In 1954, Jack Wainscott and Burt Hall (Fred’s son) retired, selling their shares to Hanwell Seymore, Eric Douglas and their first apprentice, Burt Asplin. Fred Hall died in July 1956. His widow Beatrice kept the company going until 1959 when she sold her share to the remaining directors. It was during their era, with Eric Douglas and Hanwell Seymore at the helm, that many of the systems still used today to increase productivity were introduced. Rapid growth saw a new workshop built in Pembroke St in 1965 (in use today as Placemakers Clarence St timbers store), where an old house was converted into office space. After 30 years there, they relocated to the present site at 50 Greenwood St. FB Hall & Co have long specialised in work suited to a wide range of projects, The company’s workshop in Alexandra St, showing the early manufacturing of dairy shed hot water cylinders. big and small. In the 1920s its workload included the Waikato Hospital and Waikato University’s science blocks; in the 1960s it handled many of the buildings making up the city skyline; in the ‘70s and COMMERCIAL SPECIALISTS Design build capable Collaborative approach Strong local relationships DOMESTIC AND COMMERCIAL M • Gasfitting service and install • Programmed maintenance contracts ‘80s, it was the dairy factories of greater Waikato. It is that sense of adaptability and innovation, bedded in over 100 years, that characterises the company today. • Roof and • IPQ for b F.B. HALL & Co Since 1923 A preferred and trusted sup Proud to be the plumber of cho New Zealand Blood Service Ham 07 847 4780 | service@fbhall.co.nz | 50 Greenwood St, Hamilton | www.fbhall.co.nz 07 8 service@ 50 Gree www.fb
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Waikato Business News | December 1, 2023

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