Quiet achievers

Anna Luxton Articulate and self-assured as they are today, it is hard to imagine Brownrigg brothers, David and Jonathan, any other way.
But in 1981 with the sudden death of their father, Fergus, the pair were thrown in the deep end to take over the family's farm near Pokawa, south of Hastings.
Both then in their early 20s the game plan was to survive but the brothers both admit, to do that they had to mature early.
Those may have been the heady days of the share market prior to the crash, but life for farmers during those years was anything but easy.
Land values had fallen dramatically, Roger Douglas had removed farm subsidies and death duties were almost crippling.
Jonathan describes them as "extraordinarily difficult times".
"The focus was on survival, I look back on the 1980s and see a great deal of hardship," Jonathan says.
While the focus was on farming both looked to the sharemarket for relief from the tough times on the farm. "It was too good to be true," David said.
While the pair both got involved, and admit, they were dealt bitter medicine, it in the end hardened their resolve to stay in farming.
"We had to refocus on our roots," David said.
Both were told they could only leave school to work on the farm once they had University Entrance, and it seems neither looked hard at any other alternative.
"It's in the blood," Jonathan said.
Both attended the local primary school, Pukehou and then went on to attend Central Hawke's Bay College - leaving with the pre-requisite University Entrance.
"I like the land. I was sick of school it was instinctively the right thing to do," David, the elder of the two brothers, said.
Short of capital the brothers said their advice during the 1980s was to sell land but they looked at alternatives which was to become their trademark in farming.
The pair sold off one of their original farmhouses to raise capital to buy a neighbouring property and then bought another property shortly after in a partnership deal with friends.
At the end of the 1980s the brothers had begun to gain momentum and confidence and quickly acquired neighbouring properties in a number of lease and purchase agreements.
By 1989 the pair had bought out their younger brother, Craig, who is now a pilot for a United States airline and sister Christina, who is now married and living in Auckland, and Brownrigg Agriculture was formed.
To many, Brownrigg Agriculture and the two brothers themselves are an enigma. As their business quickly grew from the end of the 1980s few knew much about them or their farming practices.
Wagyu cattle breeding with Japanese alliance partner Kato farming and the move to squash drew much speculation among the Hawke's Bay farming and business community as to what was happening at Brownrigg Agriculture.
And, said David this prompted them, with some reluctance, to open the farm to field days "so we could be scrutinised by our farming peers".
"We are private people, we do what we do without a high profile, we aren't interested in self-promotion, but we have learnt in the past decade to hold field days and farm tours to take away some of that mystique," David said.
Today, Brownrigg Agriculture is a multi-faceted organisation with the brothers farming 11,000ha, a large chunk of which they lease from 80 different landowners.
They employ 90 staff, and this number nearly doubles during the cropping season.
The business is divided into livestock and cropping with Jonathan being responsible for cropping, David for livestock.
Brownrigg Agriculture has an administrative head office based in Hastings to manage the day-to-day issues and the structure has a distinctive corporate flavour.
Both David and Jonathan have offices there but are not so much involved in the day-to-day management but more the overall focus, which is where they both believe their strengths are.
"We have thought outside the square - there have been many things we have tried but we try them out on a small scale.
If they work - like leasing land - they become intrinsically woven into the business. If they don't work, they are dumped."
David said the growth has come naturally, organically, over time.
"We never had a grand objective we never had a five-year plan - we just keep on trying to improve on what we do."
The pair deny they are big risk-takers.
"We understand any risk before we enter into something new. We take considered risks," they said.
The pair are visionary, and Hawke's Bay property developer Andrew Lowe agrees.
Mr Lowe, who shares an interest with the Brownrigg brothers in Expressway, a planned commercial development on the expressway opposite Pakowhai Road, said the brothers have a working partnership that is rare.
"They have vision, they see the bigger picture, they have never licked their wounds. In the early days they sat down and planned," he said.
Mr Lowe, who has known the pair for 15 years, said the brothers have integrity, vision and their drive for quality has meant they don't get involved with anything unless it is done properly.
Hawke's Bay is essentially the soul of Brownrigg Agriculture. Both brothers are passionate about the region and say that although they have looked at opportunities elsewhere their empathy is with Hawke's Bay where they believe there is still a lot of untapped potential.
"We know the land, and our focus has been on improving the soils and the infrastructure," said David.
Accountant Preston Epplett, who has been involved with the Brownriggs since their grandfather Harry's time, and has known David and Jonathan since they were schoolboys, said the brothers were thrown in the deep end when their father died suddenly.
"But it never deterred them. They never considered throwing the towel in," Mr Epplett said.
"They were dropped in it and have grown the farm from a typical Hawke's Bay family farm to, as I understand it, one of the largest privately owned farming operation in the country."
Mr Epplett has enormous praise for both the brothers and it is hard to draw any criticism from him. But with a bit of pushing he does admit they do have one failing.
"They can be late for meetings," he laughs.
The success of the brothers is their attention to detail and their focus on quality, he said.
"Very early on David developed a very crude form of pasture management using a primitive computer and developed a plan to determine cattle weight gain on various pasture, putting him ahead of his time," Mr Epplett said.
This pedantic focus on detail is a trademark of their venture - nothing is done without every detail being thought through and meticulously planned.
And under pressure they are a cool unflappable team, Mr Epplett said.
However it does come at a cost, with both having a tendency to do nothing but work.
In the early days, before Jonathan was married, they would both live at the office go to Vidal's, for dinner and spend the evening talking on their cellphones, then repeat it all the next day, he said.
And where does the future lie for the brothers?
"The business can grow although there must be a time when enough is enough. But that has to be David and Jonathan's call," Mr Epplett said.
Jonathan lives in Pokawa, where most of the businesses intensive cropping is done, with his wife Rachel - and the couple's two young children, Hannah, five, and Harry 10 months.
While his focus has largely been on squash where 12,000 tonnes are exported to Japan and Korea annually, there are also 800ha of maize and various other crops planted.
There has also been a trend to do more direct marketing and that will grow over time, Jonathan said.
A recent venture has been into orcharding, with viable apple producing orchards acquired on the Heretaunga Plain, initially bought for the land, the orchards have stayed as the apples have proved to be profitable.
A fear of failure drove Jonathan during the early days.
"I didn't want to end up like so many others at the time and have to sell the family farm."
Today the brothers are focused on the business and the people that work for the partnership.
"We have a real responsibility to our staff, their families our bankers and ourselves to do the right thing to look after all the people around us," Jonathan said.
But there aren't enough hours in the day, and managing time has become increasingly important.
And the downside of growth has been the reduced personal contact with staff, landowners and other business contacts, Jonathan said.
But when there is the odd minute to relax there is a copy of every issue of Wheels Magazine since 1972 to read to feed his interest in classic cars.
He says he gets a lot of satisfaction having the odd quiet drive in them.
David also has an interest in classic cars, but to a lesser degree. He does, however, have a passion for architecture and is involved in developing the Brownriggs' new premises in Hastings, Farming House.
"My interest in architecture really lay dormant during the years we were heavily involved in farming, but I have been able to indulge it more recently with our new building."
David manages the livestock aspect of the operation which sees him travel every two years to Japan where the Brownriggs have a partnership with Kato, for whom they breed Wagyu Cattle, a relationship that has existed for 10 years.
Along with Wagyu Cattle breeding, 5000 pasture-fed steers and bulls are supplied for export to Asia and North America. and 300,000 lambs are finished out of season.
Not one to sit back and relax, David completed an MBA through Massey University in 1992.
The degree, while challenging, made him realise Brownrigg Agriculture was on track.
Possibly the real talent the brothers share is their ability to work together.
With a small age gap, David is 48 and Jonathan 46, they claim staying together has given them a united front.
Although they have differences in personality they share the same values.
"We are where we are today because of our partnership," David said.