Your Business: Power of two drives electrical engineering outfit

Ergo's power systems team does switchboard upgrades and substation design for clients like Vector. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Ergo Consulting is a boutique electrical engineering firm in Newmarket which services the high voltage power industry.

It has a broad range of expertise, from high voltage power generation through to providing instrumentation, controls and software.

After founder Chris Turney set up Ergo in November 2003, his former colleague, Nigel Stevenson, joined him two years later as his equal partner.

"We both had complementary skills, so it was a natural next step for us," says Turney.

The firm started off business rather aptly in the old Auckland Electrical Power Board building in Nuffield St, Newmarket and has now built its annual turnover to between $3 and $4 million, with a staff of 20.

The seven-year-old company is split into two main divisions, control systems and power systems.

Turney heads power systems - his team does switchboard upgrades and substation design for clients such as Vector and Powerco.

Stevenson runs the control systems group with clients including

ABB and Siemens.

Stevenson's recent experience has been with the electrical, instrumentation and control systems for process plants, particularly water and wastewater systems for companies such as Watercare and Hamilton City Council.

Water or waste water projects have been good business in the past couple of years, says Stevenson.

There have been a lot of councils looking to upgrade water quality and they need monitoring instrument to test the quality effectively.

Finding the right staff is crucial for this kind of specialised business.

The staff of 20 are mainly university-qualified electrical engineers, some up to PhD level.

"It's a lot easier than it was to find staff," says Turney.

He and Stevenson recruit their graduates from the University of Auckland's engineering department and they will be looking increasingly at the University of Canterbury too, because of its excellent power systems department in the engineering school.

"Graduates come and work for us for a week in the holidays," says Turney.

"We have fantastic staff who we look after very well," he adds.

"We pay them overtime, we don't like them working the weekend, we take everybody out for morning tea once a week, we have a lot of fun.

"With us, an employee takes a lot of effort to get back to the same place - we've got some really key people, we'd be loath to lose them."

Ergo needs to be always hiring. Until two years ago, it was doubling turnover for three or four years.

"But the profit was not doubling. With 15 people it was the same as five," says Turney.

The company leaders have taken management advice on achieving structured growth. Through this they have also been able to give staff feedback on a monthly basis so they can feel part of the growth of the business. This is helping productivity, say Turney and Stevenson.

They have their next step figured out.

"Our strategy, rather than to go out and find new customers, is to do more work with clients who know us," they say.

Ergo's competition is generally from the multi-disciplinary groups like Beca.

It has good relationships with complementary engineering consultancies with whom it shares clients.

"It is quite collegial but we are reluctant to join with other companies because it destroys the culture," says Turney.

"The important thing for us is the values. We both have a strong sense of integrity.

"It's not all about profits, we enjoy the people and want to do well, we want them to enjoy work."