It was a time when finance was tight and the new operation provided mortgages for buyers of new-build homes. During his five years with Residential Mortgages, the business grew from nothing to around $800million in assets.
He then switched to the company's related housing business, then called Fletcher Residential, as operations and development director.
"It was an exciting time to be with Fletcher, with lots of strategy change for the business as it moved into more community-based approaches for housing," he said.
By late 1998 he was ready for a new challenge and, with a couple of silent partners set up IT company NCB (New Channel for Builders), an e-commerce building supplies operation, which supplied stock directly from manufacturers to builders.
"The internet was nowhere near to what it is now," he said.
"We were going to manufacturers and saying, 'We want you to break bulk and deliver directly to the building sites'. That was a challenge to a lot of companies, which manufactured in bulk and delivered to the merchant chain. We were changing their mindset."
NCB eventually ended up as part of a joint venture with Fletcher Merchants, which controlled the Placemakers merchant chain.
"They got to participate in some of the learning we were undertaking with our e-commerce technology," he said.
In October 2009 the founding owners sold out of NCB and Mr Florence, who had been a board member of Surf Life Saving New Zealand, accepted an offer to serve as the organisation's chief executive for almost two years and drive a change management project.
The role was Wellington-based but, when an opportunity came to re-enter the building trade by heading up CBANZ, he did not hesitate for long and relocated to the Bay of Plenty in 2012.
The association is based in Tauranga for historical reasons - it was set up in 1998 by local man Craig Wilkinson, who gathered a group of builders together who were concerned their trade was being undermined by builders without qualifications who were giving the industry a bad name.
"It was nice to get back into the building industry and with an organisation where the board was supportive of driving growth and change within a building industry that has been going through a lot of change," said Mr Florence.
"There have been a few challenges and there are more to come," he added, citing new Building Act regulations that came into force in January and the ongoing work on changes to the resource management regulatory regime.
"We're the only association that requires a builder to be trade qualified to belong," he said. "We're an industry that is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses. Our mission is to help our members become better businessmen."
Mr Florence, who is on the board of the building and construction Industry Training Organisation, said one of the key challenges for the industry remained the massive shortfall of skilled tradespeople.
"That's creating some risk for the industry around build quality and timely delivery of building projects," he said.
"But in general the feedback I have from members is that the market in Tauranga has responded pretty well to increased demand. There's also been some pick-up in Rotorua and Whakatane, but primarily the growth is Tauranga-based."
Being close to daughters clinched move
Grant Florence and Pip, his wife of more than 40 years, have two daughters and three grandchildren.
And it was their daughters who tipped the balance when it came time to deciding whether to relocate to the Bay of Plenty. They lived in Auckland and pointed out they would only be a couple of hours or so drive away, he said.
"The lifestyle and the climate is great," he said. "Plus I had friends here and I'd been visiting for years through the surf lifesaving involvement."
The couple live in Mount Maunganui and are out on the water a lot. Mr Florence is also a keen mountain biker and skier.
A frequent flyer, he spends a lot of time reading industry reports while travelling and relaxes with favourite thriller authors, including James Paterson and Nelson de Mille.
Paul Rutherford, owner of Tauranga's Rutherford Signs, who has known Mr Florence since high school, described him as straight-up guy.
"He doesn't get too wrapped up in ego, he's very straightforward, and he won't let you down," he said.
Grant Florence
Role - Chief executive, Certified Builders Association of New Zealand
Born - New Plymouth, New Zealand
Age - 62
First job - Banking management trainee
