Read Industrial Directors, Phil (left), Steve and Noel Read. Photo / Supplied
Read Industrial Directors, Phil (left), Steve and Noel Read. Photo / Supplied
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This year, engineering company Read Industrial reached a significant milestone through perseverance and strong family connections.
It's been 100 years since the business launched from a Papanui garage and more than five decades since it moved to Rangiora in 1965-1966.
Now, five generationsof the Read family have manufactured, serviced, and installed milking machines for the dairy farmers of New Zealand.
The company remains a rare commodity in today's fast-paced world, due to its business ethos "Efficiency, Reliability Simplicity and Quality," and a little something known as "the Read way".
All five of Noel's children have worked in the family business at some point but sons Steve and Philip manage the day to day running of the company.
Factory manager Steve and sales manager Phil have worked in every aspect of the business and are as comfortable in overalls as they are sitting in the office.
They have also inherited the Read's "likeability chip" and credit much of that to their parents.
Steve and Phil are the fourth generation of Reads working in the business but Noel's grandchildren are also starting to gain experience working in the factory.
The Read family's philosophy around manufacturing is that they build much of what they need in-house.
This, in turn, has buffered Read Industrial against the supply interruptions that its counterparts deal with every day.
Having control in the foundry and not having to outsource was a huge advantage, Steve said.
A financially stable business also enabled the Reads to invest heavily in expansion, machinery, and the stock on site as well, he said.
The Reads' method might be unusual, but it worked, Steve said.
"Most accountants would have a fit if they saw what we hold but that is what's kept us going in the last two years with Covid interruptions."
Read Industrial has never actively pursued international work, but it has completed works in 10 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
That work has often been generated by young international travellers, who have worked on dairy farms in New Zealand and returned to their homes having experienced "the Read way."
Waste not, want not
Hardly anything is wasted at the factory, as the Reads are "huge on restoration," Steve said.
"For example, farmers send us vacuum pumps to test and maintain, as opposed to always buying new. Everything is kept because it might have another use."
Items could also be re-cycled through the foundry, Steve said.
"We get many farmers looking for things that may be obsolete or obscure, and they go to 'Noel or Steve'. Noel loves going hunting for them."
Nowadays automation is the way to stay ahead of labour and environmental challenges and there is also a move towards milking sheep, goats and even deer
A number of dairy farms look to automation for raw milk sales as well.
The additional steelwork needed for these automated dairies has created manufacturing energy for the Read family.
"A family's business"
George James and John Harnett at Red Industrial. Photo / Supplied
Today Read Industrial employs 60 people and supplies 17 Read Milking System dealers throughout the country.
Reads remains unfazed by multi-national companies working competitively within New Zealand's busy dairying landscape.
It is also on the automation train, remaining a cutting-edge choice for its dairy customers.
Read Industrial is not a family business - it is very much a family's business.
"Customers can only buy cheap so many times in a row. Just because ours is simple, doesn't mean it's necessarily cheap because in the long run, quality is best, and that's what stands the test of time," Phil said.
The family put the company's success down to honouring their Great, Great Grandfather's business ethos around its milking systems – "Efficiency, Reliability Simplicity and Quality".
Continuity of service
Paul Brougham sand casting at Read Industrial. Photo / Supplied
Leo Donker's relationship with Read Industrial stretches back five decades to their original family farm at Oxford.
"It's not only the family but also the relationship the Read family has with their staff that makes it easy for me," Leo said.
The way the Reads ran their company resulted in a workforce with a thorough knowledge of the business, he said.
"Because they have so many long-term staff that know the business and that are passionate about it, we get a continuity of service that not only comes from the top of the business but which also carries through to its technicians and service people.
This meant Reads was the preferred supplier for all Leo's milking plants.
"We're incredibly happy with the product, the service and the relationship we have with Philip, Steve and Noel."
