INDUSTRY PEOPLE
Furthermore, according to Statistics New Zealand, to
August 2018, imports of rubber and rubber articles were
up 6.9% on the previous year, indicating a steady increase
and supporting the statistics around solid agricultural,
construction and manufacturing figures.
joinery and engineering, hence the kitchen business, and
the skills gained from the joinery business meant that
Gary could learn the craft of casket-making. Gary has
since added funeral services to his repertoire, too.
In essence, the caskets are plywood. They feature rope
handles, a Perendale wool base, and non-
Gary explains that overall, the supply of
tracks is steady due to the multitude of “There will be a half a dozen tanalised timber with water-based glues, stain
projects on around the country. Any quieter other blokes down there, I and varnish. The aesthetic of them is simple,
times are outweighed when contractors need someone to give me a beautiful, respectful of the environment and
experience the wetter months, then all of the wind-up, and I need to give most importantly, affordable. Both Gary and
Di wanted a product that people could afford,
work comes in at once, although that can someone a wind-up.”
as often the high expense of a funeral can
change if the winter is a good one.
overshadow this very special and mournful day.
If there’s long, fine, dry days then contractors are more
Again—and it’s an unfortunate fact of life—our population
likely to push through and get the work done. It makes
sense to make hay while the sun shines, even if your
rubber track could use a bit of love. Kiwis are notorious
for their “she’ll be right”, “no worries” attitude to almost
every situation.
While Gary enjoys the relative freedom of working from
home, lately he’s considered a bit of a move.
That move is to relocate stock and the operating “heart”
of the tracks business to Mosgiel, situated 15kms west of
the city centre, and a short drive from Gary’s place. The
plan is to hook-up with like-minded small business people
in a business-park environment, in order to drum up some
camaraderie and daily motivation over a morning coffee.
“There will be a half a dozen other blokes down there, I need
someone to give me a wind-up, and I need to give someone
a wind-up. It will be great to get a bit of banter going on.”
It took Gary and Di awhile to work out that Gary is a people-
person and that it would be easier to run the business in
this manner, but also that Mosgiel is a more convenient
pick-up point for shipping the tracks than Saddle Hill. It
means that the guys can help each other out, if one is
off-site when a courier truck arrives. They hope to have
completed the transfer by Christmas.
And then there’s the coffins. Yes. Coffins.
In a surprise turn of events, Gary and Di got hold of a
business one day while visiting a chap who wanted to
offload the casket business due to illness.
“We just called in to see him one day, and the next thing,
we walked out owning the business.”
Di is the Head Mortician at Dunedin Hospital. She worked
her way up from cleaner, to nurse aide, to working in the
laboratories, to working in the morgue. That all happened
over a 30- year period. Gary’s background was, of course,
Gary, in his spare time, also makes caskets.
w w w. c a m m a g a z i n e . c o . n z
CAM November 2018
75