Soon after leaving school, at the age of 17, Reece Gasson (Te Rarawa, Ngati Kuri) started his apprenticeship to pursue a career in drainlaying. A couple of years later, all his hard work and effort to learn on the job paid off. He gained his qualification which enabled him to workfor and gain experience from some big construction companies in Auckland.

"Drainlaying wasn’t something I wanted to pursue initially. Like most 17-year-olds, I had no idea what career I would pursue. I was given the opportunity to do my apprenticeship at a local company, which I am grateful for.

After starting, I realised I enjoyed working outside, operating machinery and driving trucks and the physical aspect of the job. No two days are ever the same and I thrived in that work environment."

Reece Gasson (Te Rarawa, Ngati Kuri)

In 2013, Reece and his wife made one of the most important decisions of their lives – starting their own company to support their growing family. He was 27, and they had just welcomed their third child, when they branched out to build their own business, Elite Drainage.

Reece already knew everything he needed to know from the labouring side of the business, and it didn’t take him long to learn the administrative side. While the beginning of his business venture was an exciting time, he admits that it also came with a few challenges that he had to overcome.

“It required a bit of adjustment for me at the beginning. It was a hard time because I went from simply earning my hourly rates at a job to needing to knuckle down and pull money out of my own pocket to get the business going,” he says.

Machineries like diggers and trucks are must-haves for a drainlaying business and buying these required substantial capital – something that Reece didn’t have at the time. During their first year, he had to hire his friend’s digger to get jobs done. This helped keep his company in business and save enough money to get a deposit for his own machineries.

He shares,

“Saving money to get a deposit for machineries I needed and finding the work are among the tough things I had to go through when we were starting. I really had to put myself out there on a whim and not be shy to ask people for work and pass contacts, that sort of stuff, because our company was new. We’re relying on just word of mouth.”

Making ties with Amotai

Three years ago, Reece and his wife first learned about Amotai, Aotearoa New Zealand’s supplier diversity intermediary, and how it connects Māori-owned and Pasifika-owned businesses with buyers wanting to purchase goods, services and works. Keen to expand their network, they went through the process toregister their business with Amotai – and they’ve received massive support since then.

From this partnership, gaining their PREQUAL pre-qualification to demonstrate their company’s ability to perform work safely is one of the key outcomes that Reece is thankful for.

“The health and safety pre-qualification process – that was something new to us at the beginning. They helped us understand the processes and submit all health and safety requirements to get qualified in that department,” he says.

“The people from Amotai are friendly, easy to deal with and easy to talk to. They made me feel comfortable and they’ve been really helpful with getting Elite Drainage recognised as a Māori-owned business. "

"They also helped build our confidence and capability to tender for bigger jobs, which a small company like ours would not necessarily be able to do because we would not be on the radar of these large suppliers’ tendering process. Amotai has enabled these large suppliers to engage with Māori and Pasifika companies of all sizes."

Finding work in school property space

More large-scale companies with bigger projects or diverse clients are actively engaging with Amotai to support supplier diversity– and one of them is Maynard Marks.

“We’ve been a member of Amotai, as a buyer, for more than a year now. We’ve really valued the opportunity to expand our knowledge on supplier diversity, and to meet new suppliers”

Danica McPhee (Ngāpuhi), Maynard Marks Client Relationship Manager and Project Manager

Danica had the opportunity to work with Reece’s team for the first time on a project at Hillsborough Primary School and was impressed with their knowledge and the quality of their work, she gladly engaged them in further school projects managed by Maynard Marks.

“What I appreciate about Reece is his pragmatic approach to problem solving when key information is not available. Clearly this comes down to his extensive drainage knowledge and experience in the trade over many years. Having this level of competency and capability in our projects means challenges are overcome faster, saving costs for the Ministry,”she shares.

Most suppliers in the school property space are well-known and therefore find it easier to win work with their strong track record. Encouraging new supplier talent in this space helps encourage competition because new players are motivated to exceed expectationsand open to learning and feedback.

“Because many Amotai suppliers are smaller sole traders or a family operated company, there can be a perception that they might not have enough experience. Our time spent working with small businesses proves that this is not the case, and Elite Drainage are a prime example. We have found that quality service delivery isn’t necessarily defined by the size of a firm,” says Danica.

To date, Elite Drainage has completed a total of five school property projects with Maynard Marks – and they have three more in the pipeline.

Small team, big dream

Reece proudly shares that Elite Drainage has grown over the years.

“Amotai helped grow our business – the variety of work that’s available to us has really increased,” he says.

Elite Drainage is a small family-orientated type of business, and Reece insists that he wants to keep it that way.

"When I started our business, I wanted to create a great work environment so everyone would enjoy coming to work every morning. If everyone is happy at work, then you get the best quality workmanship. Everyone’s just happy to turn up and do a good job, that’s what we’re going for,” he says.

“I want to see more guys like Josh (a member of Reece’s team) who has been with us for eight years now. He started as an apprentice and he’s a qualified drainlayer now. During that time, he has progressed within the business and can be trusted to run his own crew and complete jobs of various sizes. He has bought his first house and had two kids in that time. He’s just doing really well and that’s what we’d like to see more of–people doing well in their lives.”

Editor’s notes:

In 2021, the Ministry of Education became the second government agency to partner with Amotai, Aotearoa’s supplier diversity intermediary. We’ve built this relationship as part of our commitment to achieving broader outcomes through our procurement activities, particularly in increasing opportunities for New Zealand businesses – including Māori and Pasifika businesses – to access government contracts and opportunities.

Schools who are keen to directly engage Amotai-verified suppliers, or learn more about the Ministry’s broader outcomes initiatives, can contact Broader.Outcomes@education.govt.nz