John Oskam started his business in a Whanganui garage.
OBITUARY
Well into his nineties, John Oskam regularly turned up at the factory he started “to tinker with this, that and the other”.
The Whanganui engineer and Axiam Plastics founder died on January 25, aged 100.
Oskam was born on a small farm near Utrecht in the Netherlands, one of six brothers, leaving school aged 12 and living under Nazi occupation for five years.
Son Frank Oskam said his father went on to start an engineering business that made zinc cast toys, before moving his young family to Dunedin in 1957.
“When the Soviet Union sent tanks into Budapest to quell an independence uprising [1956], he was worried World War III was about to start,” he said.
“He wanted to move as far away as possible.”
In Dunedin, he worked for manufacturing firm Shacklock before taking a job six years later as toolroom manager at Blake Diecasting in Whanganui.
“At Blake, he was approached by a New Plymouth footwear company, which wanted to know if it would make zinc moulds for women’s heels,” Frank Oskam said.
“My father was keen, but Blake said it wasn’t their core business.
“He decided to try it himself in his garage, and that’s where it all started.”
Son Peter Oskam said the new business moved to London St, “then expanded, then expanded again”.
“Eventually, the whole place got too small, and he moved to where it is now [131 Somme Parade].”
Peter, Frank and their older brother John jnr worked alongside their father at various times.
“We never thought we’d make it a career. It was more about helping the old boy get started before we did our own thing,” Frank Oskam said.
“But it just grew too fast. We all found our place there.”
In the 1980s, Oskam Industries bought Wanganui Engineering, Wanganui Boats, the Wanganui Foundry and Blake, which were owned by a Singaporean group and facing liquidation.
Blake became Diametrics, Wanganui Engineering became ADX and the Wanganui Foundry became Formcast.
Wanganui Boats was eventually sold to its managers, Myles Fothergill and Colin Mitchell, who renamed it Q-West.
Oskam Industries changed its name to Inztep Industries in 1993.
Frank Oskam said a “major reinvention” was needed in the 1990s, as tariff protection reduced and New Zealand’s footwear industry collapsed.
At the time, the Oskams were injection-moulding soles and heels.
“It was similar to my father’s toy business back in the Netherlands, which failed because Japanese toys were a lot cheaper at that time.
“Footwear became a lot cheaper to make in China, Vietnam and India.
“Luckily for us, we had the injection moulding know-how, so we scrapped our dedicated footwear machines and bought brand new general-purpose machines.”
Inztep became Axiam Plastics in 2003.
Peter Oskam said the company currently produced “all sorts of stuff”, from medical parts for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare to nozzles for Wet & Forget, and there were about 150 staff.
Axiam Metals, an amalgamation of ADX, Formcast and Diametrics, has been operating nearby on Kelvin St since the mid-2000s.
That employs about 50 people.
“In his lifetime, Dad went from a garage to all of that.
“He loved his job, and even in his nineties, he was turning up and tinkering with this that and the other.
“They had to ban him eventually because he was becoming a health and safety hazard.”
His father was made to stop driving five years ago, Frank Oskam said.
“That was a bit of a battle, as was getting him into Ryman [Jane Winstone retirement village], because he was so independent.”
Pacific Helmets founder David Bennett said he first approached Oskam Industries about 45 years ago.
“I’d say there are at least 70 different moulds held at Axiam for parts to put into our helmets.
“Everybody thinks you have to make these things overseas, but you don’t.
“John tended to stay out of the limelight, but he was a very clever guy.”
Peter Oskam said he came and went from the business, but Frank and John jnr remained part of it for their entire working lives.
“And Dad never really retired. It was all work, that’s what he always thought about, and he and my brother John were a great inventing team.
“I remember a pogo stick with a motor, which would throw you back up again. It was probably a bit dangerous, but a lot of fun was had.”
John Lambert Oskam married four times, but wanted to be buried alongside his first wife and the mother of his children, Margaret Sophia Oskam, at the Matarawa Cemetery.
He is survived by four brothers, three sons, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.