Fresh opportunity arises from ashes

PHOENIX: BBI director Brendan O'Sullivan has big plans after disaster struck his company's neighbourhood. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

BBI director Brendan O'Sullivan was just looking for a new home for his business and ended up a property developer
The Hawk Packaging fire in January 2012 was the biggest fire crews fighting the fire had seen.
Fire crews from as far as Palmerston North were summoned to the Mahora site in Hastings, where burning recycled paper products had spread to fruit bins next door, creating 200m of intense inferno.
"You don't get any bigger," Area Commander Chris Nicoll said.
Hastings was lucky there was no breeze that night. Apple tray ashes flickered down to start new fires. Nearby residents were evacuated as their car windscreens melted.
BBI director Brendan O'Sullivan, said he got to the fire late, after a flurry of texts said his neighbour's property was on fire and his warehouse soon could be.
It already was.
"I couldn't get near the place so I drove across the paddock through all the smoke," he said.
"The firemen inside my building were fighting the fire from the inside out. We had a big concrete firewall but it was lapping over it.
"Thankfully we had a high-grade sprinkler system on the outside of the building. They said they were almost going to pull out because so much water had been drawn to fight the blaze that there was a drop in pressure.
"They said they got a late spurt and that's what made the difference, otherwise it would have gone.
"Thank God that didn't happen. We had $1.5 million worth of damage but we could still carry on.
"We were very close to losing the lot. The fire protection and sprinklers make a difference."
DSK Engineering needed the side of its building replaced.
The concrete firewall "looked like it had been sprayed with an AK47".
In the ashes he saw opportunity - Hawk was already due to move to a new site.
"I knew the land was owned by an offshore company that had no real interest in Hawke's Bay, so a couple of weeks later I called them."
It was owned by ASX-listed Australian mining services firm Ludowici, who were happy to sell.
He already owned the neighbouring 1.35ha site for his building supply import company BBI.
"I came back from overseas seven years ago and my friend was importing plywood. I thought it had good potential and I felt like a challenge.
BBI started in shareholder John Bostock's "dusty onion shed in Flaxmere".
"Our plywood had an onion fragrance to it. It was a very basic operation to start with and has grown from there.
"There wasn't so much competition in the plywood market. It was a good thing to bring some tension to the markets .
"New Zealanders is not big enough to produce everything, you can't have a single player just absolutely dominating; a monopoly. So there is certainly a lot more competition in the market now which has been good."
He has since purchased Mr Bostock's shareholding and Rowe Mcgregor has become "a key person".
When looking for a bigger home for BBI he came upon his current site on Coventry Rd.
"It was a good buy from an out-of-town finance company. It was really run down and there was only one tenant, Crown Equipment. There was over 10,000sq m of office space and warehousing and I only needed half of it."
BBI's rent was enough "to make it all work".
BBI has grown into its site and more. It has a distribution centre in Auckland and Christchurch, with 23 staff in Hawke's Bay's head office.
In 2010 he bought a 50 per cent shareholding in a company that imports labour-saving Ecko fastening devices.
But it is the Hawk Packaging site he likes talking about.
It is the same size as the first site, originally UEB Packaging and later Carter Holt Harvey, which stumped up for the $500,000 sprinkler system that saved his business.
Thanks to refurbishments - using some of BBI's products - tenants are EnzaFoods, Crown, Onsite Recruitment and Crossman Richards.
"We spent quite a bit of money and it's great seeing the mix of bigger businesses and smaller local operations. Effectively that's what I want to do next door with that big burned-out site, we have 12,000sq m on four different titles. Ideally have some sort of anchor tenants and then have some small businesses dotted around.
"I got David Mackersey [Mackersey Construction] to come in as a partner because he's an experienced developer. He has done a lot of good stuff in Ahuriri and Havelock North. He's a great guy with a great reputation. Often business is about doing stuff with people you enjoy."
On the corner of Tomoana and Coventry roads, the site is beside the proposed Food Hub and Expressway road extension from Evenden Rd.
It may not be his last development.
"You get to know the area and you look around ... and you start scheming."
#The writer of this article, Patrick O'Sullivan, is not related to Brendan O'Sullivan.