Pipe dreams worth millions

By Dita De Boni

John Hynds is not only passionate about pipes, he's pipped at the suggestion that the pipe trade is anything less than extremely sexy.

While the common perception of concrete pipes is of heavy, grey, sewage-carrying eyesores, to the pipe veteran of 26 years and winner of the 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award they are beautifully crafted creations snaking voluptuously under city streets, not only draining waste but supplying power and water through smoothly meandering arterial routes.

They are also the lifeblood of the $42 million Hynds Pipes business.

The modest Mr Hynds has been "outed" this year, receiving a shower of business accolades in June and finding himself under the media spotlight for the first substantial time in 26 years of business.

"We decided this year we wanted to raise our media profile," he says disingenuously.

Mr Hynds quietly operates his main site on 4ha of prime industrial land in East Tamaki - just 30 minutes from his hometown of Manurewa - with his two sons and "childhood sweetheart" Leonie.

The privately owned Hynds Pipe Systems has divested itself of a variety of ventures since 1973, including swimming pool construction, pipe laying and retainer walls, to concentrate on building the core business - the manufacture of spun concrete pipes and the distribution of all products drainage-related.

The company has had its share of hard times but has also been involved in some fairly spectacular projects, including two kilometres of concrete sewer pipes for Wanganui City, $6 million of pipes to carry underground electricity cables between East Tamaki and Pakuranga - the longest tunnel of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere - and, most visibly, the eight support legs of Auckland's Sky Tower.

Hynds Pipe now supplies around 40 per cent of the concrete pipe market in New Zealand through three factories and seven sales centres, the bulk of the business lying north of Taupo.

Mr Hynds' pipe dreams began more than 26 years ago when he thirsted after his own business and used his experience as an engineering consultant to branch out on his own and take on the "big boys" of the construction supply industry, Hume and Winstone.

From what was literally a backyard contracting and manufacturing business in Papakura housing a block-making facility, the family home and fruit trees on half an acre, the company moved to a proper commercial site in Tamaki in 1979 and expanded rapidly into pipes and manholes.

Deregulation of the construction industry also contributed to the viability of smaller business by lifting restrictions on the purchasing of materials.

"We used to have to place orders for steel frames three months in advance and pay a full one month before we actually got it - we also had to be in position to buy 10 tonnes of the steel in advance before we could get an account."

Although Mr Hynds calls himself a "cautious investor" - growing each stage of the business only after paying off the last stage, a volatile industry like construction meant some pretty shaky times for Hynds - times which have propelled the company into constantly redefining its core business.

A foray into swimming pools, which he describes as a "disaster," as well as the need to move into different sizes of pipes to compete effectively in the market, resulted in a hefty mortgage on the family home and the business.

It also led Mr Hynds to formulate a vision for the company in 1989 where he decided it would "stick to its knitting" and concentrate on innovations in pipes and drainage as well as entreating staff to become fully involved in the dream.

After having to sack all his staff - all four - at one very early point, Mr Hynds reassessed his management style and realised that human resources were the key to the successful evolution of small to big business.

"I now think manufacturers need to develop team-based management where we can rely on well-trained people who are self-sufficient and understand the vision."

Management and human resources are self-confessed "passions" in the Hynds corporate culture, but paring down costs and developing a viable alternative to innovations in plastics, aluminium and steel have also driven the staff to work together to meet budgets.

Environmental issues are also a concern. Although Mr Hynds smiles fondly remembering "trucks full of metal, fires burning, sleeves rolled up and short pants" - not a redneck hoedown but a description of the company's first contract to build a school on sleepy pastoral land at Conifer Grove, Manurewa - he says the very location of his main site requires a fair amount of green-think .

"We are a concrete plant in the middle of a community of bakers supplying most of the bread New Zealanders eat [in East Tamaki]," he says.

"We are working on methods to purify our stormwater, which carries silt and a variety of unnecessary materials into the stream at the back of our property."

In fact, green-friendly inventions, he says, will provide the company with the means to grow the national business even further.

Hynds Pipes has jumped on opportunities presented by the Resource Management Act requiring companies to deal with polluted stormwater, and the company believes that by exporting its stormwater treatment systems, it can continue to grow domestically without the almost-mandatory move to Australia.

Mr Hynds is not ready to go offshore yet - discounting the 5 per cent of products exported to the islands - but concedes that his sons may choose to do so further down the line.

For now he is happy to bask a little in the media spotlight, consider new pipe-related opportunities and look forward to his trip to Palm Springs in November where he will attend the Ernst & Young International Forum of Entrepreneurs.

He sums it all up with characteristic modesty: "We've had a great year."