New Zealand-based Pete’s Takeaways Ltd. is on an island in more ways than one. The liquid waste hauling company is surrounded by water at its tourist-haven home base. But it’s also the last remaining independent septage hauler in the region, having watched as a multinational competitor bought out the other local service providers.
As the lone holdout in his area, owner Pete Harford is taking the ever-changing business landscape in stride. And he thinks he’s found the silver lining in the ominous cloud of corporate buyouts.
“I believe competition is good because it keeps you on your toes, it makes you work that little bit harder,” he says. The tricks up his sleeve for handling the competition: solid marketing, personal service and state-of-the-art equipment.
ROUNDABOUT BEGINNINGS
“I don’t know why I got into this business. Just a rush to the brain or something,” jokes Harford, offering a special brand of Down Under humor delivered with a thick New Zealander drawl. Harford is semi-retired, but on duty daily, running the Tauranga, New Zealand, company specializing in hauling and treating liquid waste from residential septic systems and commercial customers.
All kidding aside, Pete’s Takeaways is running strong after 29 years, and its seasoned staff is prepared to fend off the threat posed by conglomeration.
Before getting into the business, Harford enjoyed several colorful occupations. He began his professional life as a butcher, then landed a unique fishing job catching marine animals for a marine park. After that, he traveled to New Guinea and worked for an American company laying drain tiles. When he returned to New Zealand, his plans to buy a dairy bar fell through, so, inexplicably, as he says, he bought a septic tank truck, and got into a line of work that he says is somewhat related to his first career — “Being a butcher, I was feeding them at one end; now I’m taking it from the other end.”
It was a one-man show for about six years until Harford had the opportunity to buy a competitor who owned two trucks. The company originally maintained a small niche doing septic work and later expanded into commercial waste. The current business mix is 50 percent residential, 50 percent commercial waste. Pete’s does not own portable restrooms but pumps them for companies that don’t have that capability.
The company team includes six drivers: Paul Taylor, Craig Forsman, Lawrence Nelson, Barry Lewis, Bruce Turkington and David Wilson. Margaret Valentine handles office duties. The manager is Red Milson, who’s been with the company 13 years and runs the day-to-day operations.
DAVID AND GOLIATH
In 2006, Trans-pacific Industries Group Ltd., a U.S. corporation, came into New Zealand and started buying up many septic and commercial waste companies. When they made Harford an offer, he chose not to sell — “Most probably because I’m an idiot!” Harford jokes about it now. Pete’s remains as the only independent company in his area, but Harford uses that to his advantage in competing against the conglomerate.
Being small, the company can offer personal service to its customers.
“We’re a 24/7 company. If you ring our phone number any time of the day or night you will talk to Red or myself. We don’t have answer-phones. We don’t have dial one, push three, hold the line, we’ll be back in 20 minutes.”
The company is able to act quickly since decisions can be made instantly by either Harford or Milson. “If a big spill or any problem comes up that has to be attended to within half an hour, we can do it,” he says. He sums up his competitive strategy in three words: service, service, service.
Pete’s does a lot of advertising in the local newspapers, which Harford believes gives his business a significant boost. The company also has an ad in the Yellow Pages. A Web site is somewhat effective. “We get the odd inquiry from the Web, which is mainly people from out of town who have holiday homes in the area,” says Milson.
Harford says through marketing, customer service and longevity, the company has created a database of more than 8,000 clients. Although New Zealanders move around a lot, the company tries to keep in touch with them by occasionally sending out newsletters or updates on service trends. They especially try to encourage a three-year cleanout schedule for septic customers, but, despite their efforts, owners usually call only when the tanks are overflowing.
“It’s not a well-managed system. They often pack up,” Harford says of systems left neglected for years on end, which then are difficult to pump. “We’ve done tanks up to 20 years old where we may have to actually dig the stuff out.”
A FLEET WITH PERSONALITY
The company has five vacuum trucks, all with steel tanks built to withstand the rough roads in the area. The tanks do not have freshwater compartments because water is plentiful in New Zealand. Most of the vehicles were manufactured in Japan. The Masport Inc. pumps that also came from Japan were originally oil-cooled but, for economic reasons, the company converted them to water-cooled units.
The company likes to give names to its trucks. The larger rigs — Big Blue with a 9,000-liter (2,378-gallon) tank and The Old Girl with a 12,000-liter (3,170-gallon) capacity — are built on Mitsubishi and Isuzu chassis.
The company’s two smaller vehicles are Nissans with 6,000-liter (1,585-gallon) tanks. These smaller vehicles (The Work Horse and Twin Brother) can get into hard-to-reach areas and are used mainly for residential septic tanks and commercial grease traps.
The latest addition to the fleet was built in New Zealand on a Nissan chassis and has a 9,000-liter (2,378-gallon) tank. “I wanted to build a hot rod, something that caught people’s attention, and a little bit different,” says Harford. “It has a lot of chrome, flashing lights, all the bells and whistles.” He calls it Miss New Zealand — “Because it has a good body on it.”
In a class all its own is a KSA dewatering truck from Danish maker Simon Moos Maskinfabrik A/S, which the company purchased in 1998. “It’s a septic tank truck and a dewatering plant all combined,” he says. Waste is pumped into the tank and a polymer added to separate the water from the solids, a process that takes 5 to 10 minutes. The graywater is drained off into another holding tank, then discharged into a sewer system or put back into the septic tanks, recharging them so they’re ready to start receiving solids.
“If you do it right, you could get a glass of drinking water and a glass of the graywater, set them side by side, and visually you couldn’t tell the difference,” says Harford before adding, “Until you taste it!”
Technicians can pump 30 septic tanks with the dewatering truck before disposing the solids by land application on 12 acres of farmland leased by the company. Generally the KSA stays in the company yard and the other vehicles pump their loads into it for processing. A detailed instruction manual enables Pete’s to do its own maintenance and repairs on the dewatering truck. When parts are needed, the company can get them from Denmark within 36 hours.
BUSINESS, NEW ZEALAND STYLE
New Zealand is comprised of two large islands and numerous smaller ones. As part of the British Commonwealth, England’s Queen Elizabeth II is the reigning monarch. But its 4 million citizens are ruled by Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Tauranga, a city of 120,000, sits on the North Island’s Bay of Plenty in a district known as the kiwi fruit capital of the world. It has a mild climate so Pete’s is rarely confronted with weather-related issues. “We don’t have snow or temperature extremes,” says Harford.
By law, employees are entitled to four weeks paid vacation and five days sick leave annually. Employers do not pay for health insurance as New Zealand has a tax-funded universal healthcare system. One business challenge is that companies must pay a truck road use fee by weight for every kilometer driven.
Harford doesn’t believe there’s much difference between pumpers in New Zealand and in the United States. “You read Pumper and 90 percent of the ideas, other countries already are doing it the same.” He says issues like the rising fuel costs, finding reliable help and figuring out good disposal options are universal.
“We’re pretty much the same,” he says, “Except you guys have the funny accent.”
Harford has no plans to sell the company to Transpacific when he retires.
“I’ll try and keep it local. I’m proud of my company and wouldn’t like to see a multinational company take it over,” he says. Harford is 59 and hopes to work the business for another ten years before getting out. “When I do that, I’ll come over and annoy the heck out of the Americans for a few months.”
