Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Our People: Lockwood's Joe La Grouw, genuine Dutch-Kiwi joker

By Jill Nicholas
Rotorua Daily Post·
15 Dec, 2018 10:32 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The Lockwood success story is well known but there's not nearly so much on record about Johannes (Joe) jnr. Photo / Stephen Parker

The Lockwood success story is well known but there's not nearly so much on record about Johannes (Joe) jnr. Photo / Stephen Parker

As a youngster Joe La Grouw planned to retire at 30. He overshot the mark by 48 years.

In June he passed the managing directorship of Lockwood Homes to son Andrew, the third generation of La Grouws to head the Rotorua-based company his grandfather founded nudging seven decades ago.

The Lockwood success story's well documented but there's not nearly so much on record about Johannes (Joe) Junior. Sure, he's a captain of industry, a rich lister and philanthropist, has been invested with the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and saluted as Rotorua's 2011 Businessperson of the Year.

But what of the "genuine Dutch-Kiwi joker" he remains, untouched by the trappings of perceived privilege? This is a man who's worked his rear end off for what he's acquired.

Joe was 12 when his new migrant father saw Rotorua as the perfect place to establish the Lockwood concept he and then partner John van Loghemconceived.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Joe snr settled his family at Rotoiti, the place his son sees as the foundation stone for his life to come.

"I was one of the few white kids at the school. Māori kids would touch my head, it was surreal, then I figured out they'd never seen blond hair before.

"They became lifelong friends.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Rotoiti's where I learned to tickle trout, go into the bush hunting, they put me on a horse, no saddle, no bridle, just a rope around its neck; it was smarter than me, went for the lowest-hanging branch, knocked me off. Those are the sort of life experiences you can't calculate the value of."

With Lockwood's foundations laid, his dad bought a Tarawera Rd section and a tent. "My parents and us five kids camped in it for two years, it was pretty primitive."

Surely they at least had the comfort of a flush toilet? "Hell no, it was a long drop."

Joe biked to the town's sole secondary school, Rotorua High.

Discover more

Our People: Deryck Shaw

28 Dec 09:00 PM

Our People Summer Special: The Moriori are alive and well

11 Jan 11:00 PM

Our People: Maui the Moriori leading his people's renaissance

11 Jan 10:00 PM

Review: Club Cabaret at the Blue Baths

14 Jan 01:00 AM

"I wasn't academic, was probably in the lowest possible class, had to sit School Cert three times. When I made it into the 6th form our teacher said 'put your hand up if you're going to sit UE'. She looked at me and almost snarled, 'La Grouw, put your hand down.'

"I left school soon after."

A keen swimmer, his hand again shot up when the Blue Baths wanted a cleaner, unpopular work entailing 3am starts.

"My job was to empty, clean and refill the pool. While it was filling I'd do my 100 breaststroke laps, by then I was at competition level, I was so fit it was ridiculous. l'd go to school from the baths."

When it was decreed his presence was no longer required in the classroom his father employed him on the factory floor until a Mairangi Bay Lockwood franchisee needed a labourer. The job went to Joe.

"The opportunity came to take over the Taupo franchise. I bought a bit of land opposite the Napier turn-off, lived in a caravan. God, it was cold. I bought a small heater, when I woke the next morning it was like living in an ice cave, all these icicles hanging from the roof because of the condensation."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He was doing a bit of conveyancing work for a lawyer mate when the neighbouring real estate firm came on the market. Joe bought it.

"Then you had to go to court for a licence. The Real Estate Institute opposed it, the magistrate reserved his decision, then on September 9 [1961] he called me in and said 'I can now give you that licence because you're 21 today. Congratulations, you're the youngest real estate agent in New Zealand'."

Joe ran the agency together with his Lockwood franchise.

"When I moved to Auckland I dragged the real estate side along with me, had it for 10 years."

His commitment to Lockwood continued. "I didn't have too much of a private life, was too busy," but he did slip in marriage to his first wife, Dianna, and they adopted two children.

"I bought 10 acres [four-plus hectares] in Albany, ploughed it and planted 30,000 strawberry plants."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He spotted an ad in an Aussie paper placed by the Texas-based Success Motivation Institute. "I contacted them, asked if they had a New Zealand branch. They didn't but said 'come and see us'. I said, 'I can't afford to', they said they'd pay. Those were the days when you could take very little money out of New Zealand - I soon ran out."

Regardless, Joe secured the franchise but the bureaucracy of import controls decreed two vital components, the record player needed to play the motivational discs and book bags, were off limits.

"I ran around getting bags made, went to Phillips, managed to get the price right down on 100 players, then the door-knocking began."

The hard slog paid off. He estimates his first year in the business brought in a million dollars.

"After a couple of years I realised I was doing too many things, sold out and bought 1000 acres [more than 404ha] on the Kaipara Harbour, which we developed from salt flats and swamp into pasture running dry stock.

"That was a lot of fun. I was still doing my Lockwood work."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

All ran smoothly until van Loghem dropped a bombshell: He was selling his shares.

"I knew enough about business to tell my father to exercise his pre-emptive rights, he said he couldn't afford to.

"I said I'd organise the finances but the banks didn't want to know. However City Bank, which had just opened in Auckland, jumped at the chance to step in.

"My father said, 'you'd better come back and run the place'. That was 1982."

Joe jnr had not been home long when he and a friend spent a weekend in New Plymouth.

Enter Jo-Anne, the woman who became his second wife. Together they've become Rotorua linchpins.Their contributions in time and money to this community and charitable organisations would fill several Our People editions.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But this man of the people deflects our wish to acknowledge them.

"We enjoy our community, being able to help if we can. Growing up here you become part of something bigger than yourself, it's great, wonderful.

"I couldn't bear to move out of Rotorua."

FACTBOX:

JOE LA GROUW, CNZOM

Born: Amsterdam, 1940

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Education: Amsterdam, Wainuiomata Primary, Rotoiti School, Rotorua High School

Family: Wife Jo-Anne La Grouw, ONZM, son Andrew, daughter Denise, stepson Darin Fenwick

Interests: Family, gardening - "It's the glue that holds Jo-Anne and I together." Art, cultural events, NZ Aria (Lockwood's about to resume sponsorship), Life Education Trust, recently retried chairman Geyser Foundation. "Apart form that I don't do much at all."

On his life: "I've just done what I've done without thinking about it."

On Rotorua: "It's home, it's spectacular to be involved in the Māori culture, they take you as you are - no bells and whistles."

On royal recognition: "It's an honour but it doesn't buy you a loaf of bread or bottle of whisky."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Personal philosophy: "I don't really have one, just living life as it comes."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

06 Jul 10:51 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

Kāinga Ora axes housing project, reveals new plans

06 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Opinion

Balancing power: What the employment law changes mean for you

06 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

06 Jul 10:51 PM

Information sought about man in green coat and gumboots on Pine Drive, Murupara.

Kāinga Ora axes housing project, reveals new plans

Kāinga Ora axes housing project, reveals new plans

06 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Balancing power: What the employment law changes mean for you

Balancing power: What the employment law changes mean for you

06 Jul 05:00 PM
Caught on tape: Identity finally revealed of Jaguar-driving teen behind CBD rampage

Caught on tape: Identity finally revealed of Jaguar-driving teen behind CBD rampage

06 Jul 06:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP