Sir Paul Adams has been inducted into the NZ Business Hall of Fame. Photo / Alex Cairns
Sir Paul Adams has collected many accolades in his working career over more than five decades, but those achievements paled in comparison to the business honour he received last night.
Adams was inducted as a laureate into the NZ Business Hall of Fame in front of about 700 peers at a glitzy and glamourous black tie event at the Cordis hotel in Auckland.
In the 1950s, Adams was brought up in a state house as an underprivileged kid and grew up in a working-class suburb in Wellington. He has built a reputation as a trail-blazing businessman in the kiwifruit industry, as well as in land development, commercial construction and civic amenities, and prefers to stay out of the spotlight and fly under the radar.
However, in an interview before last night’s event, Adams said he was “truly humbled and honoured” to be acknowledged and welcomed into the ranks of fellow businessmen and women who had all made extraordinary contributions to business and the community in New Zealand.
“This is the pinnacle of recognition in the New Zealand business world. There have only ever been about 200 laureates inducted, including many names I am now honoured to be amongst. So I consider it an incredible honour which I am very proud to have been awarded.”
Adams’ long list of accolades includes his knighthood for services to philanthropy and community and his being named a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and philanthropy.
He worked at the Wellington Harbour Board engineer’s office to put himself through polytech and university, where he gained qualifications in civil engineering and business management. He was running the biggest civil construction company in that city at age 28, and then started his own engineering practice specialising in construction disputes, resolving many associated with the Clutha power scheme prior to the construction of the Clyde Dam.
Kiwifruit development brought him to the Western Bay of Plenty in the 1980s, where over the next 10 years, he became the owner of the largest kiwifruit orchard and management company in New Zealand, with 50 orchards and 10 packhouses and cool stores. He sold that to Fletcher Challenge, which paved the way to set up Carrus in 1989, which was also born out of his support for Tauranga’s residential growth strategy.
Carrus has been involved in creating residential land subdivisions in Wellington, Palmerston North, Taupō, Rotorua, Hamilton, Auckland and Tauranga. This includes the Lakes subdivision in Tauranga, which consists of about 2000 homes. He has developed about 10,000 residential, commercial and industrial lots over the past 40 years.
Adams has held numerous roles that used his residential, land development and business expertise - including as the director of the IHC and the founding chairman of Accessible Properties, which is 100 per cent owned by the IHC. Adams has helped grow Accessible Properties to become one of the largest social housing non-governmental organisations in NZ. He was a past councillor of Waikato University, the Waipuna Hospice patron and a life member, the founding director and a life member of the Western Bay of Plenty economic agency Priority One and patron of Tē Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust.
He has also had major involvement with numerous sponsorships, community events and many other charities.
Adams said it was extremely rewarding to know his business endeavours over the years had helped create thousands of jobs and assisted in growing Tauranga and other centres in New Zealand.
John Gordon from Sharp Tudhope Lawyers, who attended the induction, said Sir Paul’s award was richly deserved.
“Paul is a very clever and courageous businessman. He sees the big picture very early. People who can see things early can do wonderful things because they can see things that other people can’t... and he is able to monetise that very successfully.
“On top of that, he has got a very strong social conscience, and he has never forgotten his roots and been a tremendous philanthropist in Tauranga.”
TECT chairman Bill Holland said Sir Paul had given so much and been generous in financial terms through a range of community organisations.
“But perhaps even more significantly, he is a highly competent businessman. He has voluntarily given a lot of his time and energy and shared his wonderful business skills [with] the community he serves, which is quite extraordinary.
“This achievement is just another worthy achievement for a man who’s done so much, not only for Tauranga, but for the whole of New Zealand.”
Tauranga Business Chamber chief executive Matt Cowley said Sir Paul would be joining the extraordinary company of past laureates, who truly were New Zealand’s Hall of Fame business leaders who had contributed to local communities.
“Like many of Sir Paul’s contributions to local communities, his acceptance into the Hall of Fame will be remembered for generations. I understand that Sir Paul is Tauranga’s first inductee into the NZ Hall of Fame, and I’m very confident that he will not be our last.
“Sir Paul’s long-term success is impressive, particularly as he’s endured a number of economic and industry challenges during his career.”
Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said while “Sir Paul is obviously a successful and astute businessman, what stands out for me is his desire to be involved in initiatives that help our community. Paul is generous with his time, likes action, and is genuinely supportive of anything that makes this city better”.
“This makes him a real leader in our community.”
Adams was inducted into the NZ Business Hall of Fame alongside former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, former Auckland Business Chamber boss Michael Barnett, Ngāi Tahu tourism leader Wally Stone, dairy pioneer Kingi Smiler, the late Kelly Tarlton, founder of Underwater World, and property developer and commercial investor Ted Manson.
What is the best piece of business advice you have received?
Always leave something in a business negotiation and a deal for the other party. This has been repaid to me many times over by way of repeat business deals.
What is the biggest business lesson you have learned and why?
If a deal sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. I relied on what I was told by two separate people during my business career in entering into financial contracts. I knew those people and took them at face value. Both did not honour the contract we entered into, and it ended up costing me a lot of money.
What is your advice to businesspeople who want to succeed?
Always complete full due diligence on any investment, with external advice in areas you don’t fully understand, and never invest more money than you can afford to lose. Always balance the upside with the downside. Youthful exuberance often means new investors only look at the upside, and in the excitement of investing, forget what the worst downside may look like. Stick with investments that your background business involvement gives you some level of understanding of.
Highlights at a glance
Carmen Hall is a news director for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, covering business and general news. She has been a Voyager Media Awards winner and a journalist for 25 years.
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