Richie Graham and his wife (and informal social media manager), Casey, with their children, Eva and Mikaere. Photo / Supplied
Richie Graham and his wife (and informal social media manager), Casey, with their children, Eva and Mikaere. Photo / Supplied
A Whanganui man who started his career as the "stop-go guy" 17 years ago is now determined to make a go of his whānau civil construction business.
Mike Tweed reports.
Richie Graham is using his 17 years of experience in the civil construction industry to start his own "small whānaubusiness adventure" - Graham Civil Contractors.
He is currently operating with a crew of three others, one of whom is his younger brother Sebastian.
His older brother Mike, currently based in Hamilton, is also in the industry.
Graham, whose previous role was as project manager for Higgins, said his introduction to roading was "being the guy holding the stop-go sign".
"I always thought that was one of the hardest jobs I've been a part of," Graham said.
"Every time I get someone to do that type of work I understand that it's tough. Standing there for 10 to 12 hours a day is not easy. It plays with your mind a little bit."
From there, Graham started operating machinery, and eventually ran crews.
"I think that helped me when I moved up to project management-type levels - I had the respect from the teams and the guys on the ground.
"They knew I had done that work."
Graham said taking the leap and starting his own company had been tough, but he was determined to give it his best shot.
"I talked to a lot of people about it and some asked, because of Covid still being around, if I was making the right decision," he said.
"You can't dwell on stuff too much, you've just got to roll the dice. I've got good support, and having my little brother as a part of it is great.
Graham Civil Contractors are currently operating with a crew of four. Photo / Supplied
"I wanted to build something for me and my family, and supporting them is what it's all about at the end of the day."
Finding a "gap in the market" for his new venture would be helped by the $620 million Manawatū Tararua Highway development that was under way, Graham said.
"That's a massive project, and there are a lot of people that need to commit to it," Graham said.
"I thought there would be room for a small contractor locally."
Despite the company's short history, Graham said his crew had been keeping busy.
"We've been lucky to get a couple of jobs from the Whanganui District Council."
Graham said the civil construction industry was currently lacking skilled workers, and he hoped to use his own experience to train those who joined his crew.
"You have to spend the time and get people trained properly, and get them to do things the right way instead of just rushing into it.
"There's so much work going on and people are getting chucked in the deep end a little bit, to a stage where they are doing that work without having done it before.
"There's big risk in that. I want to minimise that as much as possible."
In order to do that, Graham said he and his "right-hand man", Nick Cashell, would invest their time in any new employees.
"One of the biggest things, when I was managing people, was understanding them and spending a lot of time with them," Graham said.
"Once you get that right your projects and everything else fall into place.
"As long as we're busy then we can put ourselves in a position to get young people on board and get them trained."
Aside from handling the social media side of the business, Graham's wife, Casey, had also been helping with recruitment, he said.
"She is a teacher at Whanganui High School and sees a lot of kids leaving school and trying to get an understanding of where they want to be and what they want to do.
"She's having a few chats in the background and saying 'this is an option'.
"When a lot of kids talk about roading they immediately see that 'lollipop person', but there's a lot more to it than that.
"There's big careers and opportunities in this industry if you put your head down and get on with it."
