Cam Devine's Napier-based company, Devine Plumbing, has scooped a big award. Photo / Warren Buckland
Cam Devine's Napier-based company, Devine Plumbing, has scooped a big award. Photo / Warren Buckland
When Cyclone Gabrielle struck, Napier plumber Cam Devine dug deep.
He kept paying his staff for the weeks afterwards but encouraged them to go and help wherever they could with the cyclone response.
His Napier-based company Devine Plumbing, which employs 25 staff, spent 20 days after the cyclone volunteering byclearing out people’s homes and properties and putting its diggers and trucks to good use in the clean-up.
Devine Plumbing has now been recognised as the 2023 NZ Master Plumber of the Year – the top accolade awarded on Friday in Christchurch at the New Zealand Plumbing Awards.
The judges referenced the company’s outstanding work in the wake of the cyclone as a reason for winning the top gong.
Devine Plumbing owner Cam Devine on one of the diggers which proved a huge help during the cyclone response. Photo / Warren Buckland
“We have the diggers and trucks and stuff to help out, so rather than sitting around doing nothing we thought we may as well get in and help as many people as we can.
“So we took 20 days off, basically from that Tuesday [when the cyclone hit Hawke’s Bay in February], and I said to the boys I’ll pay you all but you have to come to work and we will go and help as many people as we can.”
Devine, 35, was born and raised in Hawke’s Bay and started Devine Plumbing with his now-retired father, Mike, a decade ago.
It has grown from three workers to a team of 25 and boasts a strong reputation in Hawke’s Bay.
Devine said he was speechless when his company was read out as the winner of the top award.
“A lot of hard work over the last 10 years has got us to where we are now, but basically my whole business is run on the people that work there, I have amazing staff and amazing support around me.”
He gave special thanks to his wife Marikki (also a qualified plumber) and his father, who got him into the trade at a young age.
Hawke’s Bay plumber Tyson Kihi won the industry’s top national apprentice award, the James Douglas Medallion, at the New Zealand Plumbing Awards.
Kihi came relatively late to a plumbing career at the age of 29, having spent the previous 11 years as a freezing worker.
Watching a TV news item about the desperate shortage of skilled plumbers was his turning point. He wanted a new career path that would provide a secure future for his partner and their growing family.
Kihi, who works for Advanced Plumbing HB (based in Hastings), is now at the end of his apprenticeship and is leading the company’s teams in reinstating services to damaged properties after Cyclone Gabrielle.
After the cyclone, Kihi spent much of his time helping out where he could in the clean-up.
