Peter Jackson Plumbing is the Electra Business of the Year 2024. Photo / Captured by Friday
Peter Jackson Plumbing is the Electra Business of the Year 2024. Photo / Captured by Friday
A plumbing and drainage company, based out of Paraparaumu, has won the supreme award at the 30th Electra Business and Innovation Awards.
Peter Jackson Plumbing won the coveted Electra Business of the Year trophy at the well-attended awards night held at the Horowhenua Events Centre on Thursday, hosted by journalist Paddy Gower.
Company owner/operator Peter Jackson and his wife Sonya, who started the company in 1998, were delighted.
“We’re overwhelmed and feel very privileged,” Sonya said.
“I was almost speechless and couldn’t believe it.”
It was a humble start to the business, all those years ago, but people were soon aware of it as Sonya put flyers into letterboxes in Paekākāriki, Paraparaumu and Waikanae during early morning power walks.
Paddy Gower with Sonya and Peter Jackson. Photo / Captured by Friday
“I would turn up to an address, to do a plumbing job, and would see one of our flyers on a fridge,” Peter recalls.
“Eventually, when you used to send out an invoice in the mail, we would send a little fridge magnet, featuring a tap and our business details.
“Sonya was also very good on the phone, through to invoicing, delivering a professional customer service.
“And I started to create a best-practice manual of how I wanted our team to operate when they got to a home from how I wanted the shoes off, placement of dropsheets, tools to one side, being proud to wear the uniform, letting the customer know when we were coming and going, to showing them the job and talking them through what had been done.”
Peter got into the plumbing industry at a young age. One of his after school jobs was cutting lawns where he met Ido De Bernardo, who owned Aquaheat, and would start Plumbing World.
“I asked him for an apprencticeship. He gave me one doing high rise buildings in Wellington. It was hard work. Then I moved on to a housing maintenance company, went overseas, and came back and started contracting by myself for quite a while, before Sonya and I decided to decided to have a go at our own business.”
The company had gone from strength to strength and now employed 10 plumbers and three adminstration staff, had mentored about 20 apprentices including some who have gone on to own large companies, and the couple’s children were a key part of the business too.
