"People we're dealing with have changed, volumes we're dealing with have changed and we're back chasing an export opportunity as well," Mr Burgess said.
"We deal a lot with people who have particular problems and we're the ones providing the solutions, so it means customising those solutions too."
Their customer base includes agricultural suppliers, architects and flooring retailers.
Burgess Matting has four divisions: a commercial division dealing with architects; an agricultural division; an education and playground safety division; and an end user division where people come to the company with specific requirements.
There are also niche markets the company creates for, such as the Palmerston North entrepreneur who sells a rubber training device for hockey. It's a product that goes all over the world. On its own that one sport is a huge market - there are more than 4000 hockey clubs in the United Kingdom alone.
All of the research and development is done in-house but generally driven by enquiries.
"We developed a rubber flooring tile for an architect in Wellington. He didn't like what we had initially so we did sampling until we got the answer. We've been selling those for 10 years," Mr Burgess said.
"At the moment we're doing flooring installations for high performance sports organisations such as AUT in their new building. We did the first installation about 17 years ago for them so they came back to us again," Mr Burgess said.
He said when his father started the business more than 60 years ago he was "an environmentalist before his time - not that he knew that".
The Wanganui East factory chews through about 500 tonnes of used rubber every year, shredding the tyres into small chips and removing the steel in the tyres magnetically. They bring in new rubber for special products but the bulk of it relies on what they recycle.
"It's not easy to work with. Getting down the size we need is a bit of a mission. It's not free and then we've got to get it here, process it and remove the steel from it. We can chip to a smaller size and the smaller the size the denser the product."
What began as door mats has grown and Burgess product is found in dairy sheds, horse stables, gymnasiums, playgrounds and under floors.
The machinery in the plant has all been adapted from the leather industry and most of the recycled rubber is compression moulded and mixed with bonding agents.
Mr Burgess said the company was exporting some years ago but backed off from that until recently when they set up a distributor in Melbourne.
"It's a pretty positive market and they've generated quite a lot of work for us," he said.
And being in Wanganui is not an issue for the business either. "It's a good place to live for a start. We don't have the headaches of big city life. We can access a lot of raw material and transportation isn't an issue."
Mr Burgess said the team was always looking at creating new products and adding value to existing products.
Burgess Matting doesn't operate with a big staff but the current 10 in production could increase.
"Ideally we'd sit at about 16 staff and that's where I can see us getting to in the near future, probably after Christmas. There's some growth happening," he said.
It's not just all fabricating in the factory and shipping out. There are times when the staff will go to another centre to install product.
Recently it has filled orders for acoustic underlay for a holiday resort being built in Fiji and they will be back there in December for the second stage.
Burgess Matting was a preferred supplier over other overseas and cheaper producers and that represents a coup for the company.
"It's about being good at what you do. You've got to be active to stay in the market. If you don't know what's going on it's difficult. We've got more of a web awareness now," Mr Burgess said.
He said the company was also looking at opportunities in the Christchurch rebuild. "We're involved there in a small way but we're developing a couple of associations to get people on the ground there. The wheels are turning slowly but we're looking to things picking up after Christmas."
