Always doing his bit to encourage young people into the industry and willing to share his knowledge with other plumbers, Brian Foley is a deserving recipient of Master Plumbers Life Membership.
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rian Foley has been in the plumbing industry for over 50 years and says he hasn’t seen it this busy. COVID-19 might have put the brakes on many activities in 2020, but not so for renovation work. “We had a record 157 jobs in four days here at our Dunedin branch in August,” he says. Brian is, of course, referring to Foleys, the biggest plumbing firm in Dunedin, with 10 branches around the South Island and in Palmerston North employing more than 220 staff.
Happy to help At 80, he still works in the business, going in each morning to do pricing work on the home dialysis systems the company installs for Dunedin Hospital—around two a month by Brian’s reckoning. The systems are a life saver for many people in the region, as they can use them overnight, enabling them to carry on with their working lives during the day. Helping others is something Brian loves to do, whether it be carrying out jobs for health and disability support service Enable New Zealand, sharing his knowledge and advice with other plumbers, encouraging apprentices in their new careers, or even rescuing stranded motorists with his 4-wheel drive on snowy days in Dunedin.
Commitment to Master Plumbers He has also been heavily involved with Master Plumbers for many years, serving on the national executive for 20 years, with a term touring around New Zealand as national President in 1996. Brian joined Master Plumbers in 1962, not long out of his apprenticeship at his father Albert’s company. “My dad purchased the business in 1934, having got together the money to buy it from doing
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Brian Foley as national Master Plumbers President in 1996.
