Bubble man: gets his own backyard tidy first

CHARLIE BORRELL

Managing director and founder of Airopac industries, manufacturer of bubble wrap plastic packaging.

Staff:10 full time

Age:36


What makes your day at work?


High activity, plenty of orders coming in and seeing everyone happy.

At the end of the day the goal is to get the business humming. If there's not much activity it makes you question your business. The home environment's really important too, and if it's not happy, it affects your whole life.

How did you get where you are today?


Through hard work, long hours and with a bit of a vision.

I grew up in Mangere and my mum was a solo parent, so I haven't had an easy road into business, but I always wanted to do something on my own.

In 1993 I mortgaged our home, got a $10,000 loan and designed and built a bubble machine in our garage. I used to get up at 5 am and work until midnight on it every day. It was exhausting, but worth it.

What is the most important lesson you have learned on your way up?


You have to listen to your customers and their problems. It should be a fundamental for any business. We're not perfect, we don't always get it right, so we have to bounce ideas off people.

How have you dealt with any pitfalls in your career?


We sold shares in the business to another group which was hopefully going to take care of the sales and marketing side of the business. But it was growing too, so didn't have time to do our work.

So I bought it back and we came out of it okay, with my wife taking over some of that side of the business. If that group wasn't going to have any input, it wasn't worth it having a share in the business that we could use down the track.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out in business?


The first thing is to identify something you enjoy and go for it.

Business is not easy, but if you're enjoying what you're doing, it doesn't become a burden and just makes everything so much easier. Education's really important, too. If I had listened to my mum when I was younger and stuck it out at school, I'd probably be a lot further down the track with my business today.

What's the biggest challenge for your organisation in the present economy?


Keeping up with the changes in technology, like e-mail and the internet, has been a bit of a struggle. Because I had my head down with the industrial manufacturing side, we'd fallen behind a bit.

In today's economy it's really important to be up-to-date to stay competitive.

What would you have done differently?


I would have gone to university and started my business sooner. If I'd done a commerce degree, I'd probably be much further ahead today.

What ambitions do you have?


To have the best balance of life through work and the family. Work's not a burden, but you're always fine-tuning the operation.

If I had time I'd probably do a lot more community work in the Pacific Island community - at the moment it's all hands on deck to make sure the business hums along profitably.

Over the next few years I'm looking foward to steady growth. I'd like to start exporting to Australia within two years, but first it's making sure that the backyard is tidy.

How do you relax?


By spending time with the family. I've got four kids and I get a real buzz seeing them do well. In the past it has been work, work, work and this year's been focused on them. I work out when I can and follow sport, that's really relaxing. Hopefully we will win the World Cup.

* Charlie Borrell spoke with Libby Middlebrook.