Where the rubber meets the road and paves the way to success in Upper Hutt

Friday, 29 September 2017

Once abandoned and empty, the former Dunlop tyre factory in Upper Hutt has been revitalised into a commercial and manufacturing hub thanks to the vision of its owner Malcolm Gillies. Colin Williams reports.

Property developer Malcolm Gillies has little time for sentiment.

In the late 1970s  Malcolm Gillies was an apprentice fitter at Upper Hutt's Dunlop tyre factory. Today he owns the South Pacific Industrial Park, where the tyre factory once supported an economy protected from imports. 

But with the success and continuing expansion of the industrial park, the 59-year-old allows himself some emotional slack.

'We've breathed new life into it [the industrial site] and there's an immense sense of satisfaction to see the old girl up and running.

'It's exciting to see how it's come together, really. It could have been a [white] elephant, couldn't it, but it's actually turned out very, very vibrant and positive.'

Today, after almost a decade of his management, the South Pacific Industrial Park is a fully leased commercial and manufacturing hub, accommodating more than 35 businesses and providing almost 400 jobs, the number of rubber workers on site in Dunlop's heyday. 

'Imagine if it had just been left to rack and ruin with just car wreckers and battery factories and crap in there.'

​Several of the tenants are expanding, a Brewtown craft beer production and destination hub is in the planning, and construction of 'Maidstone Quarter', a 90-lot residential and business development on adjacent land at the park's frontage, will begin early next year.

It all represents a stunning against-the-odds revitalisation for the 18-hectare hillside property which, after its closure by Dunlop in 2006, was abandoned for two years.

The shutdown of the 24-hour, blue-collar factory brought the sudden loss of many well-paid local jobs and bit hard and long into the economy.

'The closure hit Upper Hutt hard. All those years ago it was all bustle and hustle there and a real positive with what has happened since is that again there are jobs at South Pacific which are held by Upper Hutt people,' city council economic development manager Phil Gorman said.

'It must have been a tremendous punt [to purchase the site].  Malcolm was deliberate about making opportunities available and affordable.  Look at Mike Neilson at Panhead, he was given a start and now he's made it and for Upper Hutt all those jobs are there, again.'

Gillies has received minimal financial assistance from a council with a range of policies to attract new business, he said.

'His major work here was ahead of the economic stimulus policy being introduced. Council has provided some assistance through the policy to earthquake strengthen the facility Panhead has recently expanded into.

'The policy has also assisted the owners of two new craft breweries recently established in the complex.'

It was in 2008, already well established with his real estate business and residential development company Upper Hutt Developments, Gillies punted and by tender bought the property just 1 kilometre from the city centre.

'The vision when we bought it was to obviously renovate it and to try and encourage tenants to come from outside the area,' Gillies said. 'I think a lot of people thought it wasn't possible but I always believed it was.

The factory's purpose-built infrastructure was important to Gillies. It  included a site covering concrete floor, heavy industry power and water supply facilities and a high pitched roof.

Dominated by its landmark smokestack chimney and art deco frontage, the former Dunlop home looks similar today to its several-decade history.

But Gillies made big changes, subdividing the 36,000 square metre factory buildings which are accessed by a covered two-way service lane. 

'Anything more now will be expansion but the demand is growing and we have room, probably another hectare, to grow.'

After finding business uptake hard going early on and chipping away for years, the push to  'full house ' status came in the last 18 months, fuelled by the most of unforseen forces.

It wasn't easy to start with. 'Obviously i thought I could make it work but to be honest I've been bloody lucky because we went through some tough times.

'We've been helped, to be fair, by a number of things along the way and one of the biggest impacts  I'd have to say, has been the earthquakes in Wellington.

'Up until then we were getting some traction but that certainly helped us because a lot of businesses in Petone and Seaview saw us as a safe place geotechnically. So, for instance, there's Imperial Tobacco which we picked up as a major tenant.

'If you look at all the industrial and commercial parks in the Wellington region we've got a really good mix of clients right across the board. 

'We've been blessed also with a number of our key tenants that we started with us. There's Bradhams✓​, James Henry, Real Steel, Panhead. All of them in their own rights have been very successful, meaning that their businesses have grown significantly.'

The Maidstone Quarter housing project will be the next and final significant change with its mix of single and two-storey terraces, larger single dwellings and a clutch of attached business units on its eastern boundary.

It's a  move a long time in the making and something that was not in Gillies' original planning.​ 

'It will be similar to what we are doing at Amberley Gardens in Silverstream [in Upper Hutt]. It's what the council wants, being so close to town, but to be fair the zoning was originally bulk retail and we had about four or five business opportunities for the land  but they all fell down for one reason or another.

'But, years on now, I know this housing will complement what we have got there, complement Brewtown and what we are trying to create there but also provide a modern type of housing close to town, rather than just infill.'

BACK IN THE DAY

It's not quite a case of liking the company so much that he bought it, but pretty close.

In 1977, and fresh out of Upper Hutt College,  Malcolm Gillies first experienced the tyre-building factory he was to buy outright more than three decades later.

Gillies began his working life as an apprentice fitter and turner at 17, younger than the minimum age for rubber workers.  

'It was four years, 8000 hours, and then I stayed on as a tradesman for a number of years. My first foreman there was Paul Archibald and he actually works over there as our maintenance guru.

'I didn't do shifts as an apprentice but I did as a tradesman. We had a lot of maintenance tradies there and we were lucky to have that as an industry in Upper Hutt.

'We were probably privileged to be there in the sense they paid you well and they looked after you well.'

Real Steel managing director Luke Mathieson said people coming through the factory's northern gates to visit their old work haunt was  a common occurrence. 

'I know that too,' Gillies said. 'For me, even today, you walk through the place and there's always memories. It's pretty hard not to have them. People get quite nostalgic. It's always open to anyone that's ever worked there.

'I know that it played such an important part in Upper Hutt, who we were and what we were. You couldn't be involved in anything in Upper Hutt without someone working at Dunlops.'

One enduring memory Gillies has is of the enormous size of the factory and distance he needed to cover.  

'You'd spend all day walking, you actually were worn out. Honestly, my calves on the concrete floor used to knot up because you had these heavy work boots.

'Everyone in Upper Hutt seemed to work there. I know when I started playing rugby, especially premier, I walked from one end to the other and it would take me so long because everybody wanted to talk about the game. Kevin Tamati, the New Zealand league player, and old Alby Makeham, the Wellington halfback, were there.

'But you know, a lot of things you don't actually consider till you stop and think about it a bit.'

After Dunlops and a few years in Taranaki, Gillies was back home, turning to real estate in 1990 after a brief spell selling insurance. The under-performing real estate company he bought was soon turned around and evolved into The Professionals Upper Hutt.

'Upper Hutt is where I was brought up and where we decided to make our place and bring up our kids,' he said.

'I'm only starting to reflect on what we have done and how we have played our part, I think, in helping turn Upper Hutt around.

'We've had support from a lot of people here as well too, that's been important. And work-wise we always try to make sure that Upper Hutt guys get the first suck of the sav. That's just a reality.'

BUSINESS BOOM

At Real Steel business is booming and its South Pacific Industrial Park home of seven years is growing big time.

The steel-processing facility is, in partnership with its business park owners, undertaking a $5 million expansion with a near doubling to 5000 square metres of factory and yard space as it pushes to the business park's eastern boundary.

'It's a big expansion. We decided on it last year and we've done all the earthworks and construction has started,' managing director Luke Mathieson said.

The investment is proof positive of Real Steel's continued growth and its satisfaction with its business home.

Space is paramount for the company, which has a large range of cranes for its steel cutting for truck chassis and tipper bins.

 When the company relocated to the relatively new business park it has 10 staff. Now that number is 48 and includes  fitter welders, machine operators, mechanical engineers, industrial designers and sales reps.  

'We are working two shifts now and a lot of them live locally. It's the ideal place for us. We have access to good transport links and a network of subcontractors based here in Upper Hutt.'

Mathieson said his business park landlord had consistently been good to work with.

'It's good to see that he's keen to invest and he's still at it. Good on him.'

Further into the business park there is no happier crew than James Henry Ltd.

Owned and managed by Chris Northmore, the specialist flooring company recently ruled supreme in winning the Australasian Timber Flooring Association Awards in Sydney.

From small beginnings and a single employee more than a decade ago, James Henry is now right at home with 16 fulltime staff in a 1500sqm workshop, warehouse and showroom after a 2006 move to the South Pacific Industrial Park.

'We entered [in the flooring awards] the floor we laid as part of the St Mary of the Angels earthquake strengthening work,' Northmore said.

'I'm very proud of our team and excited to win these awards. This was the first time a New Zealand company has won the Supreme Award.'