ICT Administrator James Adamson was initially apprehensive when the idea of moving to Tauranga was raised. He was a born and bred Wellingtonian - his life was there and his family was there, including his elderly father.
He saw no way he could leave his Dad behind.
“I thought that was the end of my time at Brother because I needed to help look after him.”
James had heard whispers that a move was on the cards, as many others had, and it was confirmed at an all-staff meeting in November 2013
James told his dad what was happening, not expecting much.
“I said, I’m not going to move if I can’t take you. He had a think and I was pleasantly surprised when he said he was keen to come up with me.
“He looked at it in the same light that most of us did, which was if you’re going to move anywhere, Tauranga seemed like a really good choice.
“It’s an opportunity for new things, and a gateway to explore a lot of places like the Coromandel that I’d never been to. There’s a lot within a short drive.”
Chief Operating Officer Manuel Efaraimo had fewer complications - he and his wife both worked for Brother, so it wasn’t like one of them would need to find a new job. Like James, he says the Bay of Plenty location made it a much more attractive proposition.
“I’d only been here once for a friend’s wedding and thought, ‘Man I’d love to live here.’
“A couple of years later when it actually became an option, I thought ‘I’m in.’ It was pretty easy for us.”
For Corporate Strategy & CSR Director Mayuko Hirose, moving would mean her husband Rakesh would need to find another job. Despite the challenge, she says it was a smooth decision for their family.
Rakesh was very supportive of her career at Brother, chose to explore new opportunities in Tauranga.
“He works as an accountant, so his expertise is needed in different industries. We thought Tauranga looked good - it offered a good lifestyle.”
Aims
Brother had outgrown its Lower Hutt premises, which was its fourth in its history in New Zealand.
The idea was to move closer to customers and transport links - ideally a port. A review of possible options found elsewhere in Wellington, Auckland or Tauranga were the leading contenders.
“You’d have been lucky to get 5% of staff to go to Auckland,” James says.
However, many of Brother’s biggest clients were in Auckland, which was a reason to go there.
The cost factor helped to tip the scales in favour of Bay of Plenty. Manuel says Tauranga was 30% cheaper than staying in Wellington, and 60% cheaper than Auckland.
“At the time we could see the beginning of the Golden Triangle developing between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga,” Manuel says.
“Transport companies were increasing their focus on the general area, so we didn’t need to try and influence that ourselves.
“Being in Tauranga gave us proximity to all that connective infrastructure - it was still close enough to Auckland and it had the advantage of being cheaper, and also being a city that we thought our staff would want to live in.”
In particular, Mayuko says there was a good opportunity to utilise the port, as a business that mainly imports products.
“The Port of Tauranga is one of New Zealand’s largest and most efficient ports, and reliable port services are very important for our business.”
The Tauriko Business Estate was in its early stages of development, and Brother was among the first businesses to move in. It seemed an ideal location for a light commercial business - close enough to the city and main roads, with the space to operate and potentially expand in the future if the need arose.
Investment in the process
Of the 39 staff members that were invited to move to Tauranga, all but one of them did. A key reason for such high buy-in was the exhaustive lengths Brother management went to help families assimilate in a new city.
The Tauranga Moving Group was established, and it had interviews with every staff member to understand what they’d need. Schools, housing, jobs for partners, wider family ties - by understanding the full implications of how people would be affected by moving, individual plans could be made.
That also included timing - identifying when would be the least disruptive time for families to shift north.
“We identified that the biggest risk was losing people,” Manuel says.
“It was about bringing everyone with us on the journey. There was a real family feel to the culture, and so that was how it was managed.”
With the help of Priority One, Tauranga’s economic development agency, all staff and their families were flown to Tauranga for a weekend and given a car and accommodation to explore the area.
“It was an orientation to drive around and see what it was like, which was pretty helpful for someone like me, who’d never been to Tauranga before moving,” James says.
Priority One also helped to connect partners of Brother staff to potential employers; including helping Mayuko’s husband to find an opportunity with a local chartered accountancy firm.
“We moved up in October and by that point he’d already secured a job. It was a similar role that allowed him to use his expertise - it was fortunate that everything went smoothly.” she says.
Manuel believes the investment in the process was a big part in encouraging so many people to make the move, because it accommodated individual needs and made things as smooth as possible.
Moving people
With personal circumstances accounted for, a schedule was created to shift the business in stages over the course of a few months.
Brother paid the moving costs for all staff to relocate, and, as with the consultation process, individual circumstances were accommodated wherever possible.
“I remember some of our warehouse team really struggled finding rentals - there wasn’t a lot on the market at the time,” James says.
“It got to the point where the company paid for people to stay in a hotel for a year while they could sort themselves out. Brother went a long way for a lot of people.”
James was fortunate to get a rental fairly quickly, but it took a year or so until he bought a suitable house for him and his dad.
“As soon as I walked in the door, I knew it was the right house for us. We both agreed it was perfect.”
Mayuko and her family started by finding a house close to the new Brother office, and the other factors fell into place from there.
“We were a bit lucky because we found a daycare close by for our youngest, and a school for our oldest and they’re both a minute away from home. Location-wise it was great.”
Knowing many people had moved away from established social circles, Brother also organised regular informal get togethers for staff and families after they’d moved.
“The attitude was, people come first,” Manuel says.
“We were adamant about looking after everybody to make sure the transition went as smoothly as possible.”
Moving the business
While, from a people perspective, the move to Tauranga was reasonably flexible, from a business point of view there was a firm commitment to minimising any disruption.
That meant having no down time whatsoever.
“Reasonable or not, we were given the directive that the business doesn’t shut down,” Manuel says.
“Someone would leave their desk in Wellington on the Friday and be operational at their desk in Tauranga on the Monday. That was pretty tough. A hell of a lot of planning went into how we’d do it, and we managed to pull it off.”
Manuel and James were among the first staff to make the move in August, and they played key roles in fitting out the new premises. Initially, Brother worked from a satellite office in central Tauranga, and later that shifted to Tauriko.
“I found myself putting furniture together and setting up desks - I also tried to go a step further and make up someone’s desk like they’d left it, with their photos and chocolates etc. to make them welcome,” James says.
James’ core role was to set up the IT environment. It was built from scratch, with help from external contractors and staff still in Lower Hutt.
He says many people put in long hours to gradually increase its capabilities so it could support staff as they arrived in Tauranga.
“We had to get all our systems working with brand new equipment, then migrate equipment as it came up from Wellington over the weekend and have it up and running by Monday,” he says.
The other aspect was transitioning the warehouse and logistics side of the business. It was a phased approach where stock could continue coming from the Lower Hutt office, and over a period of 3-4 months, there came a crossover point where the Tauranga office could send out orders.
“Every day, a truck was sent up with stock from the Lower Hutt warehouse to the Tauranga warehouse. It needed to be unloaded before it turned around and went back again for another load,” James says.
“Initially, we didn’t even have any racking to store stock - we’d just stack boxes on the floor until the racking was installed. It was surreal in a way; technically it was still a building site, with an army of construction workers surrounding us!”
By the end, the business was fully set up and operational from Tauriko in December 2014 - four months after the first staff arrived in Tauranga, and 13 months on from that initial staff meeting.
It was a massive job.
“People like James and everyone that was here were so committed to making it work,” Manuel says.
“It really reflected back on the culture - why would people want to work 17 hours a day? That was why.”
Today
10 years is a lifetime for some businesses, and a decade on Brother is now firmly at home in Tauranga.
Manuel says the business objectives for making the move have all been achieved, well and truly justifying the huge effort that everybody across the business put in to make it happen.
Mayuko adds the move has enabled Brother’s sustainability profile also.
“Our emissions overall have reduced substantially in the last 10 years, and a major contributor to that has been a 40% decrease in freight emissions. We’re closer to most of our customers so it’s much easier than sending products from Wellington.”
The Tauriko Business Estate has changed considerably, with Brother seeing much of it first hand.
Where Brother was one of only a few businesses there in 2014, now there are dozens. It’s a well known high traffic area around Tauranga - one clear marker of how many people come and go each day.
“When we first moved in, there were no food outlets - there was a caravan that sold pies and sausage rolls, and a Caltex up on top of the hill and that was it,” Manuel recalls.
“I’d like to think Brother has had some influence there - maybe some other businesses saw Brother relocate and saw a benefit to it as well. I don’t know if that is the case or not, but we’ve shared with other businesses how we did it and answered some of their questions, and they’ve subsequently moved in too.
“It’s a great place to live and work and it’s been good for our business.”
“I love the weather, and it’s a more relaxed place,” James adds.
“I like the way the city is designed, and when I’ve gone back to Wellington and Lower Hutt, I find it very drab by comparison. Tauranga is green and open and more pleasant to be.”
Brother NZ Managing Director Warwick Beban says Brother has evolved constantly since making the move to Tauranga, including in different markets and product categories.
“We’ve developed a huge ecosystem of partners, resellers, distributors and retailers who take our products into the market, and so we have developed great resilience and diversity.
“I believe we have shown the Bay provides an excellent environment for both businesses and the people in those businesses to grow and thrive.
“Above all, we are focused on delivering an outstanding experience to the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses using our products. We see a very bright and positive future for our business.”
