Marty and his father Phil Verry bought Red Stag in 2003 when it was in receivership.
In 2010 it was voted the National Business Review's Most Exciting Company in its sector and this year it became the highest-capacity sawmill in Australasia.
He puts this turnaround down to three key factors:
Having the right team and the right success culture to make it a great place to work.
Low debt and continually reinvesting profits into the business.
Reinvesting in the most modern plant to be the highest-capacity and lowest-cost producer in Australasia.
Millions of dollars have been ploughed backinto the mill and, with Marty's background in IT, it's not surprising to find technology has played a significant role in this.
"Timber prices haven't increased for decades and have gone down in real terms, while labour and other costs have gone up. The only way to make money in that situation is to reinvest in high-tech plant that eliminates manual handling."
He says without that investment, Waipa would have gone the same way as Rainbow, Putaruru and Tokoroa sawmills.
"The IT is the nervous system and brains behind all that, so you must have it and you must have the people to use it.
"Those high-capacity manufacturing businesses that keep up with this philosophy are succeeding and the rest are failing or getting niche."
While wood processing is a primary focus today, Marty's first fulltime job after completing his BCA at Victoria University was in inter-bank money markets, broking bonds and bank bills.
"It taught me a lot about how the markets change with announcements in the economy and, most importantly, it taught me that I wanted to have my own business eventually."
That's an ambition he has fulfilled several times over.
On returning to New Zealand in 2000, he set up the ICT publishing and marketing company iStart.
He is also a co-founder of Txt2Get Ltd, a mobile phone text marketing technology start up, and is executive chairman of venture capital company Eros Capital Ltd.
High Achiever
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