C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
G.J. Gardner Homes NZ:
The Team is a Family at G.J. Gardner Homes New Zealan
How one company used continuous improvement to b nation’s top residential construction business. Written by: Ian Hanner Produced by: Bryan Giles
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become a
G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ
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here are certain things that one can simply luck through in life, be they winning the lottery or not catching a cold. However, nowhere is that principle less true than in the solid business that G.J. Gardner Homes NZ (G.J. Gardner) has been shaped into over time. G.J. Gardner was founded in 1983 by Greg Gardner. According to the G.J. Gardner website, 37
May 2015
a young Greg saw a market in desperate need of a better option in the residential construction company sector; an area that he saw as suffering from a lack of quality options at the time. “Greg commenced his own building company, basing his business around uncompromised quality and value, with homes designed to meet individual customer needs and built to a
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committed time frame,” the G.J. Gardner website reads. “The formula was such a success that G.J. Gardner Homes grew to be Queensland’s largest home builder and in 1995 Greg decided to franchise the business with locally owned offices using the same proven formula to build quality homes right across Australia.” In 1997, a key franchisee inquired about opening a G.J.
Gardner franchise in New Zealand, officially opening the door for what would become the country’s number one residential building group. G.J. Gardner Homes in New Zealand “We started [in New Zealand] as a business that hadn’t operated in this market— we had no brand recognition, no base, nothing,” said w w w. g j g a r d n e r. c o . n z /
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G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ Grant Porteous, co-owner of the G.J. Gardner NZ master franchise company. “The company had a reasonable start, but then the wheels started to get a little wobbly, and I was brought into the business in 2002 to run the New Zealand master franchise company.” For over a decade GJ Gardner has dominated the New Zealand building industry and Grant is nothing if not humble. Taking a more hands-on approach to management, his attention to detail and quality above all has shaped G.J. Gardner into a major force in New Zealand in a relatively
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short amount of time. Throughout this he has worked closely with his partner and wife, Ellie. “[2002] was when we really looked to change the business and the way we operated,” Grant said. “We refined our values and who we were; the things we wanted to be revered or famous for, both with our clients and within our industry. We wanted to set a new direction going forward and that’s the path we’ve remained committed to.” The journey has not been without challenge but we always remain true to our vision and our ideals. Initially we bought into the
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G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ company as equal shareholders with three other partners. The other partners were totally passive in relation to the business. As of the end of March 2015, Grant and Ellie Porteous secured the remaining 25 percent of Deacon Holdings Ltd; the holding company for G.J. Gardner in New Zealand. This has provided extra stimulus and excitement for the couple to continue to develop the GJ Gardner team in New Zealand. Their desire is to move the group from what they see as a very good business to a great business. “In comparison to some other
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building franchises in New Zealand, we have a long-term focus,” said Ellie. “We are the top building brand in this country, yet to buy one of our franchises is often cheaper than to buy one of our competitors. We do that on purpose because we understand some of the issues around setting up a new business. It is paramount that we choose the best people, not those with the biggest chequebook. Additionally we’d rather not have them cashstrapped in the beginning and prefer they have a long-term focus where they will still be with us in
Creating spaces planned around family needs ensures longevity of design. w w w. g j g a r d n e r. c o . n z /
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Bathrooms and ensuites can be designed perfectly to customer taste.
G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ five to ten years, rather than us making more income up front but having a franchise that’s not economically viable.” “Our people, our teams, create our success and bring the vision to reality, so we choose on heart, those with big tickers,” Grant added. “I call them ‘good buggers,’ an old New Zealand colloquialism for real, genuine, hard-working people.” Part of this success is the focus on an old-fashioned, family orientated approach to doing business, backed by a foundation of professional standards, systems and processes. With all franchises being 100% family owned, this culture works extremely well. To ensure smooth business operation, both Ellie and Grant
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often travel across New Zealand, a country roughly the size of California. They check in with the different franchises and conduct quarterly business performance reviews. When they travel, singularly or together they most often don’t stay at a motel but rather stay with the franchisees, in their homes to get to know their families. “We’re really a business that has managed to develop a fantastic professional team culture and still have, to a degree, a family culture,” he said. “To give you an idea, I was just visiting franchisees up north recently. I had to stay at their homes, that was just a given, I didn’t want to insult them by staying at a hotel. But the eldest sons and daughters came from living away to have dinner and a catch-up. So when you’ve got a
“We refined our values and who we were; the things we wanted to be revered or famous for, both with our clients and within our industry.” – Grant Porteous
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G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ
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twenty five year old that you used Nothing beats that feeling.” to know as a ten year old dropping This is a common theme by to have dinner with you, it’s kind throughout, with many of their of special.” supply relationships over a decade old, secured with only Company Culture a handshake. Grant prides the Whilst many business owners talk business on forming effective about building a company culture supply partnerships which that feels like a family, most fall reduce cost to serve and increase short in actually implementing efficiencies. This attitude of that. For Grant and Ellie that professionalism and ethics is wasn’t an option. Why, because encouraged throughout the family look after family, you help entire network, with joint success each other through the good and paramount. “We try not to have tough times and you don’t let too many rules but integrity in our family down. relationships and in everything we “We want to be revered for do is of utmost importance. Cross being an organization of integrity, that line in the sand and the right and one you can be proud to be to represent the brand ends” part of,” said Grant. “When we “Most things in our business walk around in uniform with our are driven back to ‘Does it add brand on our chest we want all value for our franchisee?’ and our team to be proud to do so. As most importantly ‘Does it add we travel around New Zealand we value for our customer?’ Will it frequently have people say to us, help drive our vision of having ‘Oh, you work for G.J. Gardner. every customer recommend us What a fantastic business to work to their closest friend? If not, for’ or ‘that’s a great company’ why would we do it?” Grant said. and they tell us a good story “When I get to do some work with about one of our teams building other franchise groups in New a home for them or their friends.’ Zealand, in the food industry or That is what we get all the time. other sectors, they always tend w w w. g j g a r d n e r. c o . n z /
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G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ to have a focus on themselves as a franchisor and their income. They seem like they look down on their team. We’ve always looked at it the other way. Our franchisees’ success is ultimately our success and every one of them actually forms the brand. In any market we are only as good as our local franchisee.” That same consideration is paid to customers through a comprehensive plan that ensures open communication between G.J. Gardner and its clients. The process starts with a speedy response to the customer’s initial inquiry. From there, employees try to estimate the cost for the client as quickly and as accurately as possible, whilst explaining anything the customer is confused about. “We try to answer all questions customers don’t even know to ask, we want to help customers make quick decisions by being well-informed so that when they move into the completed home they have absolutely no regrets, nothing is missed out, and there is nothing they want to change. “We actually have what we call
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our Customer Service Standards Protocols in our business, which was agreed by the team to be the minimum actions that we do for every customer,” Grant said. “’We will contact you at these agreed upon times throughout the build; we will invite you to the site this number of times.’” 10,000 Built The dedication to being known not only as an extremely skilled and efficient company, but also as one that cares about the customer’s experience from commencement to completion, is a trait that has already carried the company extremely far. Earlier this year G.J. Gardner New Zealand completed its ten thousandth build, a major milestone along the path the company has walked down for close to seventeen years. . This has been achieved through four to five years of the worst building recession ever seen in New Zealand where permit numbers for the whole country has been as low as eleven thousand per annum. Grant is hesitant to assign honour to any one factor but does w w w. g j g a r d n e r. c o . n z /
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G.J. GARDNER HOMES NZ believe that living the vision and customer service ethos right across the organisation has been critical to that success. He notes you can only deliver on a vision by having great people and that he believes is their leading edge. “I also think it’s been from doing a myriad of things really well,” he said. “We really did drive ourselves on being a great franchise network throughout the team. We are clearly great marketers of our brand in New Zealand. What would be considered a paltry budget by any corporate [in advertising] managed to make us a household name. We invested heavily in our wonderful testimonial and TV campaigns that have been absolute top quality, showing our full range of skills in the homes that we build.” He added, “It’s about being a good support office and helping our franchisees be as successful as they can be in their individual markets, which then creates a greater team and a greater good. We generally put ourselves second in the income stream, but
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by doing that, we are rewarded in the long-term.” The Future Grant and Ellie both make it very clear that whilst they don’t have a lot of room left to expand in New Zealand, they’re not finished trying to improve. As part of their standard practices in dealing with customers, surveys are sent out after the completion of every job. These surveys are intended to allow the customer to provide feedback that could help the company improve its practices. Clients are encouraged to rate the company on everything from overall job satisfaction to the attitude the crew had in dealing with them. Whilst the questionnaires are about 60 questions long and all the information collected is important, according to Grant if you don’t get the key questions answered positively it’s game over “would you build with this franchise again?” and “would you recommend this franchise to a close friend for their build?” w w w. g j g a r d n e r. c o . n z /
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Grant & Ellie
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“What we do after those key questions, we ask them how they would rank the franchise’s performance overall [on a scale of one to ten],” Grant said. “Research shows that if people do not score you above an eight, they are not truly an advocate, even if they said that they would definitely recommend us. We therefore only count the ‘yes’ scores above this level.” That sort of feedback is vital to the organisation, allowing it to respond to criticisms along every step of the company’s journey. It helps shape the vision and direction for G.J. Gardner, forcing Grant and Ellie to ask themselves are we still the organisation we set out to be, are we revered for our customer service standards and are we still leading the group effectively. “We’ve always just had two or three longterm focuses for our brand. For everything we do, we ask ourselves, ‘Who will we be in the next five years?’, ‘How will our business look in the next decade?’ and ‘Will we be able to sit back in our rocking chairs in our 70s or 80s and still see this as New Zealand’s number one building group?’ For now, the company seems to be on track.
Company Information INDUSTRY
Construction HEADQUARTERS
North Harbour, New Zealand FOUNDED
1983 Australia, 1997 New Zealand EMPLOYEES
300 nationally, 12 in support office REVENUE
Over $350 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES G.J. Gardner Homes was founded in 1983 by a young builder, Greg Gardner. With an emphasis on quality, G.J. Gardner grew to be Queensland’s largest residential construction company. By 1995 Greg decided to franchise the business throughout Australia. In 1997 the company responded to significant interest from potential franchisees in New Zealand and made the jump to an international company. In 2002 Grant and Ellie Porteous bought into Deacon Holdings Ltd, the holding company for the G.J. Gardner Homes NZ master franchise. Since then the pair has run the company with the utmost deference to customer satisfaction.
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G.J. Gardner Homes NZ Address P.O. Box 302-129 North Harbour, New Zealand, 0751 Tel. 0800 42 45 46 headoffice@gjgardner.co.nz www.gjgardner.co.nz/