Wurth is no ordinary company.
Founded in 1945 - in the ashes of post-war Germany - the company took broken machines apart and recycled the parts.
Over the years, it has remained privately owned but has gone on to become a market leader in the sale of fastening materials.
Last year the company had sales worldwide of €14.3 billion with 78,000 employees, 34,500 of whom are full time sales reps.
Wurth started in New Zealand in 1988 with just five people.
Last year its New Zealand sales came to $37.3m, up 15.6 per cent on the previous year.
"On the global scene we are the world's largest supplier of fasteners - that's nuts, bolts washers, screws and so on," Paterson says.
The company's philosophy is to take blue collar workers and bring them up through the business.
"I'm managing director now, but 20 years ago I was a sales rep," Paterson explains.
"That's the kind of model that the company uses."
Wurth has staff all over the country - a new $26m distribution centre in Wiri and another one in Christchurch.
All its sales people work from home. They are provided with a company car and all the equipment they need.
Wurth New Zealand factory. Photo/Supplied Paterson says that on that score, the company is unashamedly old-school.
Wurth has 16,000 customers nationwide - garages, transport companies. It also supplies some of the country's major construction companies.
"We place a lot of weight on our sales force. We are old fashioned that way.
"We have got an e-commerce shop - we believe in digitalisation and online sales.
"But we also believe that people are the reason why people will purchase from us."
"It goes against the trend of the last 10 to 15 years where companies have pulled back their sales reps, whereas we have increased ours."
In 2015, Wurth had 84 reps. Now it has 150.
"We are unashamedly old school. We are proud of it."
Covid-19 reaction
Paterson says he never thought he would ever have to shut the doors of his business. "It was hard to comprehend.
"We could supply a small number of essential services - about 5 per cent of our normal turnover - with just one person in each warehouse.
"Initially, we were extremely grateful for the wage subsidy. Without that we would have had to react ... maybe harsher."
Wurth NZ applied for about $1.4 million in wage subsidies for its 201 New Zealand staff.
Biggest relief
"From my point of view, fundamentally the biggest relief was getting that support from the wage subsidy.
"That's the reason why I can sit here and say we have not gotten rid of anyone, and we don't plan to, because of that injection."
In the month of May, Wurth did 80 per cent of its planned revenue.
The way things are going, Paterson is optimistic that turnover could return to normal this month.
As it stands, construction is still booming but the automotive sector is struggling, he says.
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
Three questions with Wurth managing director, David Paterson:
What has been your biggest challenge of the outbreak?
"The biggest challenge here in New Zealand was that we [have] not faced anything like this before.
"I'm 42, in my lifetime I have certainly not seen anything like it.
"The biggest challenge was mentally supporting 200 people who were freaking out that they were going to lose their jobs."
What was your biggest lesson?
"To not underestimate what can potentially happen. While markets are strong, it's a thing to celebrate, but contingency planning is important.
"And all these things that we are doing now, like higher hygiene standards, why aren't they the new normal?
"Some of them really should be part of our day-to-day lives."
"But the biggest lesson for us is to be more prepared."
One year ahead, our business will ....
"Our business is going to change and I think that that is worth noting.
"We don't think that it's going to be the same but we think that we can adapt to bring the right products to the market if it changes."
"Our plan for the next is year is to still to grow and to put on more people."
"We are aiming to be back a the double digit sales growth that has been a feature of the past five years."
