Eyes on the prize, heart in the Bay

HALFWAY: Professional director John Newland's loyalty to Hawke's Bay has led to a "bloody exciting" business career. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

Young accountant John Newland had his heart set on moving to Hawke's Bay in 1973, so was unimpressed when Leopard Brewery in Hastings did not respond to his job application.

"I'd like to speak with the manager please."

"I'm sorry he's in a meeting. Who's calling?"

"My name is John Newland. I applied for a job there six weeks ago."

"Ahh, Mr Newland - I remember your name. I'm sorry you can't speak with him right now - he's on a call."

"Look I know that's just a standard answer, could you put me through please."

"I'm sorry I can't, he's busy right now."

"That's okay. I can see his private number here in the phone book, I'll ring him tonight."

"I'll put you through now."

"Hello."

"Hi, I'm John Newland. I applied for a position with your company and I haven't heard back."

"Oh ... look I'm sorry Mr Newland, the position's been filled."

"But it's been six weeks since I applied. That's disgusting. I haven't heard from anybody and you didn't get the opportunity to meet me."

"Look Mr Newland, ahh ... you were an outstanding candidate but to be honest the accountant here is not qualified and he was uncomfortable about having an assistant who was qualified."

"Oh. That makes me quite nervous about your business, if that's the type of decisions you make. You don't know what you missed out on by not meeting me."

Silence.

"Mr Newland, I would like to meet with you."

He was flown to Hawke's Bay and asked a series of questions.

"Everything he asked I said yes to - I didn't know what a lot of the questions meant," John Newland said.

The general manager offered him a job.

"What is the job?"

"I'm not sure, but we need people like you in this company."

John Newland was the eldest of a family of six children in Hawera and his decision to go to university was unusual. His stock-agent father was unimpressed - he had left school at 14.

"He did not understand why, at the age of 16, I was not happy to leave school and get a job."

Attracting the 16-year-old to tertiary study was the comment he had heard "that you made more money working using your brain than your hands".

"That put me right off getting a trade, so I decided I needed to get a qualification with my brain.

"Then I decided I wouldn't go to Massey University. Everyone at my school went to Massey, and at that stage you could do a business degree at Massey, but Victoria had a new degree that was more rounded.

"So I went to Victoria, much to my mother's disgust because I was even further from home and I couldn't catch a ride home on weekends with people who worked in Palmerston."

He made the decision to work for an international business, wanting to travel "if somebody else was paying for it" and landed a job with Shell Oil in management accounting, "which sounded very exciting but wasn't".

He continued studying part-time to become a chartered accountant and made the decision to leave Wellington because his boss travelled 40 minutes each day on the train from Silverstream.

"He was a successful person and I thought, if you're successful in this business and you have to travel two hours by train to do it, then I may as well work in Hawera."

He decided to make Hawke's Bay his new home after two "amazing" holidays staying with a friend's family in Havelock North, but he needed a job.

He spent 15 years with Leopard. His first job was keeping the books for subsidiary hotels but his ambition was management.

"Whenever anything was spoken about in terms of special projects, I would say, 'I can do that'." He got the special projects but wanted a company car, which only salesmen received, so he volunteered to cover for salesmen on leave.

"I then said I would like to work with the marketing manager on the side, so I was appointed marketing assistant and ultimately became sales manager.

"When the business became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lion I was involved in the acquisition and became distribution manager and worked with unionised staff, which was interesting."

At age 34 he was appointed general manager of the Hastings brewery, prompting a visit from the now-retired manager who had hired him.

"Mr Newland let me shake your hand, I would like to congratulate you.

"Mr Chamberlain, the day I came here first and you interviewed me, I decided then I would one day be in this office with your job."

"Mr Newland, so did I."

He said he tried to change the culture of the brewery, breaking down "silos" of staff.

Because of over-capacity some breweries would likely be closed so he put forward a proposal for Hastings to remain: "That was quite fun and I got a hell of a lot of satisfaction from that.

"There was a lot of money spent here increasing capacity and technology was changing - our cans were no longer made by Wattie's."

He was under pressure from Lion to move to Auckland or Christchurch, but with three young children he was determined to stay in Hawke's Bay. With no further career prospects in the region he took successful Hastings programmes to other branches and restructured national beer dispensing systems to justify his decision to stay, but the pressure to move remained.

"The job came up as CEO of Farmlands, which I had never heard of, which had its head office in Hawke's Bay.

"There probably wasn't a lot of interest in it, because the company was effectively broken at that stage."

The farmer-owned farm supply chain of stores was in its third loss-making year, propped up by shareholders' contributions because the banks wouldn't.

It was 1988 and he was 38.

He decided to lift Farmlands' profile, moving many stores from back streets to high streets "so it wasn't a secret society".

Good service became a greater focus than price - staff were encouraged to chat with customers. He shared his growth vision with suppliers and increased margins.

It worked. The business became profitable and thanks to also sharing the vision with shareholders, growth capital was forthcoming.

Over his 18-year tenure sales went from $62 million to $350 million and membership from 7000 to 22,000.

Complete coverage of the North Island was developed, with 16 new stores opened.
Nine years ago, the same time he became a grandfather, he decided to start a new chapter.

"I wanted to see if I could back myself. I didn't want a big responsibility anymore and I wanted the opportunity to take my learnings and share them in a whole range of organisations, rather than just be running an organisation."

He formed Newland Directions and has accepted directorships and advisory roles for more than a dozen organisations.

Past directorships include Health Hawke's Bay, Napier Port and the New Zealand Wool Testing Authority.

Present directorships/advisory roles include Marist Holdings (Mission Estate Winery), Direct Imports, UBuy, Swazi Apparel, Hawke's Bay Insurance, Oil Imports and he is the regional chairman for BNZ Partners.

He is also chairman of Hawke's Bay Power Consumers' Trust - he signs people's annual dividend cheque - and is patron of Theatre Hawke's Bay.

He can now spend more time with family and travelling, one of his early-life goals.

In June he is leading 20 New Zealanders on a four-week train trip in the United States for a Wellington travel firm.

"I expect to do one of those trips every year from now on.

"I'm at the stage of life where I'm creating a different type of balance ... I love to travel and I'm a people person. It is just another way for me to share time with people and maybe assist them to have more fun on their holiday."

A regret from his career is the loss of jobs after departing companies.

The Hastings brewery closed in the early 1990s, with 160 jobs lost.

"When I left they were still investing and upgrading tank capacity. Palmerston and Wellington breweries had been closed and Waikato was about to close - there was no indication of closing and it took me by surprise."

He found himself in a counselling role for former colleagues: "I was gutted - I knew so many of the staff and many had been there for a very long time.

"The company treated staff well but it is not the same as keeping your job."

Within five years of leaving Farmlands jobs were lost due to its merger with CRT, forming a national co-operative which closed the former head office in Hastings.

His career so far has been "bloody exciting" and he is confident Hawke's Bay will continue to deliver opportunity.

"I'm feeling pretty positive to the outcome of the dam and I've been in a number of meetings this week where the energy level is high, the propensity for investment is strong and people are pretty positive - this is going to be a good year for the Bay."