Master Plumbers
MEMBER PROFILE
Chris Fennessy with Masterlink apprentice Caleb Foster and qualified plumber and gasfitter George Wrenn. Chris hadn’t always planned to be a plumber. He started an architecture degree at Victoria University but fixing a blocked sink at the pub where he worked was enough to convince him he wanted a career switch—and he never looked back.
Home & away Chris and Kay Fennessy experienced the plumbing industry in the UK and Australia before setting up their own business in Hawke’s Bay. As NZ Plumber discovers, they met some interesting people along the way...
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Not many plumbers can say they’ve worked for England’s future Queen Consort, but Kiwi plumber Chris Fennessy can. Whilst working for a firm in London, where he lived for five years, Chris was called out to fix the central heating at Kate Middleton’s home—one of many maintenance jobs he completed on top-drawer properties in the capital’s smartest locations. “I was asked for ID when I turned up, which I thought was unusual, but she was lovely and down-to-earth,” he says. Chris started his plumbing career in Hastings working for Graham Wall at EG Wall Ltd and won the Apprentice of the Year at the 1999 NZ Plumbing Conference. During his UK years, he had to retrain to become a CORGI registered gasfitter, setting aside one day a week around his other plumbing projects for the company.
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He also found time to fly back to New Zealand to sit his Certifying Plumber, Gasfitter and Drainlayer exams in preparation for starting his own business back in New Zealand. He and wife Kay, who met over in the UK, returned here 11 years ago, via a two-and-a-half year stint in Perth and the birth of their first son Edward—since joined by Adam, who’s now eight. “We weren’t quite ready to come back and Chris got a contract with a big commercial plumbing outfit,” explains Kay. Having finally settled on Hastings as their long-term family base, Chris and Kay established Plumbers HB together, with Kay running the office—now assisted by a PA. “Everyone would agree I’m the boss!” says Kay with a laugh, describing herself as the bossy one while husband Chris is incredibly modest. “I didn’t realise I had such as passion for
