Lockwood founder joins Kiwi greats

His company has survived five decades and he once unknowingly sold homes to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Now the founder of Rotorua-based Lockwood Homes, Jo La Grouw, has been entered into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

Jo La Grouw snr was one of six people honoured with a laureate at a gala dinner at Auckland's Hyatt Hotel last night.

The 93-year-old joins a long list of enterprising leaders who have helped build New Zealand's economy through business and employment.

Joe La Grouw jnr, who owns the company with his wife Joanne, said his father, who had trouble walking but was generally well, was "quietly happy" about the laureate.

Past laureates include jet boat inventor Sir William Hamilton, Fisher & Paykel co-founders Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel, Maori enterprise leader Sir Apirana Ngata, Farmers Trading Company founder Robert Laidlaw and Watties food company founder Sir James Wattie.

Mr La Grouw and his business partner John Van Loghem arrived in New Zealand as Dutch immigrants in 1950.

A year later, after settling in Rotorua, they utilised the region's vast timber resources to develop Lockwood's unique timber house construction system.

Their business quickly flourished, providing homes for thousands of New Zealanders after World War II.

Over the decades, it evolved into a thriving company, building for both the domestic and overseas markets.

As well as sending houses to Australia, Asia and the United States, the company sold 300 houses to customers in Iraq in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Joe La Grouw jnr, said the company was unaware at the time their customers included brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.

It has been revealed the Iraqi leader owned three Lockwood homes, rumoured to be "hideaways".

"We've been told one was built on poles above the Euphrates River, another was built in the snowy mountains and another was somewhere in the desert."

In 1982, Mr Van Loghem was bought out by the La Grouw family, giving them 100 per cent control of the company.

Last year, the family featured in the National Business Review's annual rich list, with an estimated worth of $50 million.

The prestigious honour comes a year after the company featured in a major exhibition at the Rotorua Museum of Art and History. Entitled Lockwood: From Innovation to Icon in 50 years, the exhibition told the story of the firm as part of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust's 50th anniversary.