The Patton Press Issue 2, April 2011
Christchurch Quake – A perfect test of resilience On 22 February at 12.51pm our beautiful Garden City was rocked by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake making headlines around the world. Roads were severely damaged making it difficult for ambulances and emergency teams to reach the injured, compelling emergency crews to set up triage units in open parks. The quake killed at least 166 people and devastated Christchurch city. Prime Minister John Key said after the earthquake “we may be witnessing New Zealand‟s darkest day”. New Zealand often experiences minor tremors which rarely cause damage but this quake was shallower, flattening buildings, severely damaging the city's historic 130-year-old Anglican cathedral. The New Zealand government welcomed rescue teams from around the world, including Australia, Japan and the United States. Communities reached out by housing families, schools opened their doors offering free uniforms and books, trying as best they can to keep life as normal. To mark the day a week after the event Prime Minister John Key called for two minutes' silence at 12.51pm, again the country stood united. The shake was felt strongly at Patton Christchurch, located at 26 Kingsley Street. All areas inside the branch were shaken up although damage was largely superficial, the worst damage being part of the shelf structure collapsing, a mezzanine area destabilizing sending stock crashing to the floor and the floor lifting and parting at expansion joints.
and safest way to exit the building just in case. Travelling anywhere at any time is a nightmare, fear of going into shopping malls results in very limited shopping activity, people choose to shop at supermarkets that don‟t stack stock above head height in the isles. With no adequate sewage system for at least 12 months, some households will have to make use of chemical toilets making day to day life extremely uncomfortable. To avoid any health risks all fresh water is supplied from out of town until the tap water is rid of contamination. Socialising and entertainment is limited as most of the CBD cafes, restaurants and bars are gone. While other outlets were closed Patton Christchurch remained operational, providing a vital service to the local industry. All phones were diverted to our manager Wayne Beattie‟s mobile until the building could be checked, given a green sticker and the clean-up could begin. Manufacturing jobs were picked up by Auckland Branch to minimise delays to South Island customers and all overseas shipments diverted to Wellington Branch. When compared to many other businesses and people, Patton Christchurch and team have been lucky but this does not diminish the trauma of the whole experience. Cometh the hour, cometh a great team we are very proud to have them as part of our Patton family.
For our Christchurch staff these events were very traumatic and life changing experiences that many are still unable to put into words. They consider themselves very lucky that they did not experience loss of loved ones or property. Communities are living in constant fear of another earthquake finding themselves jumping at any loud noise. On entering any building people tend to look for the quickest Patton Christchurch Team from Left: John Clemence, Brian Yates, Tony Lovell, San-
Inside this issue: FROM THE DESK OF OUR CEO
2
ACREX PATTON INDIA
2
LEAN THINKING
3
Willis Central Project
3
GM INTRODUCTIONS
4
SOLS BREAD BRISBANE
5
COOL STORE FOR TONGA
5
PATTON AU MANAGER MEETING
6
BDT TRAINING
6
INDUSTRY APPRENTICE
6
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH!
6
OLD IS GOLD
7
FORVER YOUNG!
7
PATTON AT A GLANCE
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di Lambert, Victor Beever, Ken Thompson, Wayne Beattie and Sheryl Johnston.
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The Patton Press
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From the desk of our CEO Welcome to the second issue of our Newsletter! We continue to be faced with multiple challenges both locally and internationally. I am pleased to report that both our staff and customers in Christchurch and their families are safe and their business operations are back on track.
Patton India participated in ACREX ACREX is India‟s major exhibition for the HVAC&R industry, now being held every year by rotation between New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. This years exhibition in New Delhi was not only the biggest ACREX so far but also one of the best arranged. This event was handled by the Indo German Chamber of Commerce for the ISHRAE / ASHRAE – Indian chapter who was the organiser. Total exhibition was spread in 7 different halls and more than 50,000 visitors covered this exhibition during three days.
Our Japanese suppliers and their staff and families are also safe and we are in regular contact to see if we can in provide any assistance to them.
Patton India had a booth of 87 m² which was almost ten times bigger than the booth taken by Patton India during its first time at ACREX three years ago.
2011 has started with a lot of action and activities all around for the Patton Group of Companies. In New Zealand we all have been very busy with "Lean Management" initiative appropriately named BOB "Be our Best".
The Patton booth not only displayed Patton capital equipment but the entire range of products which is distributed in India by Patton such as Embraco, Dorin, Uniweld, Appion, Supco, Fieldpiece, Mueller, Suniso, Henry, Evco and more.
In India we participated in local trade show called ACREX during February in Delhi. The response for Patton India was very positive. We were represented by eight of our main principals from USA, Scotland, China, Italy, Israel & Thailand. In Australia branches, after suffering some losses from Brisbane floods, are back on track and showing very positive growth prospects. During October we plan to exhibit at trade show in RHVAC Bangkok, Thailand.
Technical and senior sales people from all our principals were with us at the booth attending to various queries from the customers. Sameer Handa was also available during the 3 days of the exhibition. On 25th February a special Patton Evening was held at the Hotel Connaught which was attended by more than 50 of our key customers from all over India as well as an international suppliers.
With very best wishes for the rest of 2011.
After the exhibition a visit to Agra was arranged for a group of overseas suppliers who were visiting India for the first time. They stayed in Agra for the night and early morning visited the Taj Mahal – one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Sameer Handa CEO, Patton Group
The next ACREX will be held in Bangalore during February 2012.
I look forward to your continued support and encouragement during 2011.
Sanjay Kapoor, Sameer Handa and Vinod Rekhi at ACREX in Delhi.
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Our overseas suppliers during ACREX exhibition.
Issue 2, April 2011
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Lean thinking Patton has taken up a number of initiatives recently with one being “The Competitive Edge Program” via Skills4 Work. The program is based on the principals of Lean Management and involves processes such as “5S” and works towards continuous and sustainable improvement throughout the business, overtime it will involve all who work at Patton. 5S Specialist: Performance Improvement Team The first implementation of Competitive Edge is in April, targeting our Auckland assembly operation. Next on the agenda will be our Auckland Distribution Centre. These are exciting times and through the recent global recession we have maintained our position and continue to grow. Our aim is to build and deliver better, more competitive, innovative product, on time, to specification and budget.
“OUR AIM IS TO BUILD AND DELIVER BETTER, MORE COMPETITIVE, INNOVATIVE PRODUCT, ON TIME, TO SPECIFICATION AND BUDGET.” Binesh Singh with his custom built work trolley.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Into the future Patton-Mechanical Division in conjunction Wellington Branch has been successful in securing a major project in Wellington worth over a million dollars. The project is known as Willis Central and Telecom is the prime tenant. The development started in January 2010 with our first container of Aquatherm pipe, and it is due to be completed in July 2011 when the building will be handed over. Willis Central will house around 1,700 employees from across all divisions of Telecom. It consists of two environmentally sustainable 5 Green Star-rated buildings linked by a central glass atrium to create a campus-style development of approximately 26,000 square meters. The Boulcott Tower is a completely new construction but Willis Tower is an addition/renovation of two existing buildings, Airways House and Tisdalls. The new Willis Central development will feature active chilled beam cooling technologies, energy efficient lighting, solar panels and possibly wind turbines, a thermally active exterior, and during construction will use materials and technologies which minimize environmental impact.
HotChilly has been engaged to provide and install the mechanical services portion of the project. The mechanical design includes a four pipe chilled and heated water system serving 1,374 chilled beams. There are three chillers with a total capacity of 2500 kW and two boilers with a total capacity of 3000 kW. The piping system is specified to be a PP-R product and Aquatherm was the chosen manufacturer. The product used for this project was Climatherm pipe with Faser composite layer. Most services, including the majority of piping, will remain exposed on completion. For this reason, Telecom specifically requested use of the black UV resistant sleeve on Climatherm piping used on the floors they are occupying. All other floors are supplied with standard Climatherm piping. Each floor of Willis Tower consists of approximately 1000m of pipe and each floor of Boulcott consists of approximately 1300m of pipe. Pipe sizes range from 200mm in the plant room and risers to 20mm at the chilled beam connections. In total, 20+ km of Climatherm piping will be installed in the Willis Central project. Congratulations on a job well done!
Willis Central Building
Finished work: Climatherm Piping
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The Patton Press
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Our Leaders around the
Stuart Smith – Australia Stuart is married with three adult children and three grandchildren. He has two daughters, one living in Wales, the other in Christchurch and a son living in Taiwan. He lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with his wife Moira where they recently celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary. Stuart began working in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning industry with Bonaire in Dunedin. During his time in the industry he has worked for Patton New Zealand for 22 years, he was National Sales Manager for RPW in England for two years, and more recently was Regional Manager for Emerson Climate Technologies (Copeland) based in Sydney. Stuart rejoined Patton in January 2010 as General Manager for Patton Australia and is based at our Brisbane Branch. He is delighted to be back with the Patton organisation and is looking forward to the challenge of implementing the business plan which has been set in place for growth in Australia, which includes the establishment of new branches and Joint Ventures.
Vinod Rekhi – India Vinod is a qualified electrical engineer and spent most of his 40 year career with Danfoss J.V. India. He joined as Sales Engineer and resigned as Executive Director in 2006. During 2007 Vinod built his private brand “Synergy” for HVAC&R controls, accessories and tools. This brand was later sold to Patton Ltd when in November 2007 Patton Refrigeration India Pvt Ltd was incorporated as a 100% subsidy of Patton Ltd. Vinod was appointed Managing Director for the company with three employees selling „Synergy‟ and „Patton‟ brand products. During the past three years the company successfully added many well-known brands such as Henry, Mueller and Embraco to name a few, making Patton the national distributor covering all four regions with offices in Delhi, Pune & Chennai employing 20 staff. During the coming year Vinod will be working on assembly units for manufacturing Patton products in India.
Philip Hitchins – New Zealand Philip started with Patton in 1982 as a sales rep in the fledgling Wellington Branch and became manager the same year. Within a year the branch moved to a new location in Petone that provided better customer access and more room for stock. Sales grew over the next few years and the branch was moved to its current bigger and better premises five doors up the road. The branch survived a couple of recessions and continued to grow slowly but surely. Patton Wellington broke into the Dairy Industry two years before the big merger, that is Fonterra, and this created a significant opportunity. In 2007 Philip moved to Auckland as National Sales Manager then became General Manager in 2008, he continues to enjoy the contact customers and staff. Philip considers himself fortunate to have made many friends amongst his customers. Relationships and trust, fronting up and support, that‟s how he sees the future of Patton. “We are a great team of people”.
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Issue 2, April 2011
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Nirmal Gaunder – Thailand With a refrigeration background Nirmal joined Patton Refrigeration, Auckland in February 1992. When he joined, the company was owned by Harvey Turner and Wayne Berry. Nirmal considers himself blessed to have gained a high calibre of understanding of Patton products from the directors as well as key people such as the late Allan Doncaster. In the early days, being part of a small team meant being hands on, covering all different aspects of the business and all processes were manual. Over the years though many company changes, including ownership and the introduction of computers, Nirmal advanced from customer service to customer service manager (the role encompassed export sales to the South Pacific), inventory manager and finally to supply chain manager. In January 2009 Nirmal relocated to Melbourne and joined Patton Australia as national operations manager for 18 months. He briefly left the company but re-joined in September 2010 to become General Manager of Patton Aero in Thailand. With approximately 20 years‟ service in the Patton group, Nirmal has surpassed many challenges. He is enjoying life in Bangkok and is excited to lead this new and developing venture in Thailand.
Expertise, Delivered!
Cool store for Tonga
Shortly after the introduction of the new J series evaporators, Brisbane Branch engineer, Jason Pearce, in consultation with the customer, Sol Breads of Oxley, Brisbane, and the contractor, Brisbane Refrigeration, selected this equipment, based on the customer‟s requirements and the time frame. In spite of the demanding needs of Sol Breads the equipment “worked a treat” and everyone involved was delighted with the outcome.
Tonga is a beneficiary under the European Union STABEX project which is aimed at providing economic benefits to member nations and their constituents. Through a collaboration between Tongas‟ Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries (MAFFF), the Ministry of Finance and Planning,, Kool Tonga Ltd and Contracting Authority representative Dr Viliami T. Manu Patton NZ Ltd was chosen as the company to provide the technical know-how and the top quality refrigeration equipment to fulfil the requirements of this project.
“The most pleasing aspect is that because the service, equipment and time frame all came in above expectations we are virtually guaranteed the next job on this site”. Deal with the best and we will take care of the rest!
The equipment selected amongst other components comprised of a 50.0 hp condensing unit powering a blast freezer and other units designed to chill a large cool room. We at Patton needed to size the equipment carefully and correctly to ensure correct chilling of such products as Taro, Cassava, Lu and other local products in a way that meets the stringent requirements of the modern export market. The initial signing of the contract was undertaken at the end of October, with the design and delivery to be completed towards the end of December. Careful planning and checking every step of the way resulted in successful execution of the customers‟ instructions.
Another high performance Patton unit in Sol‟s bread.
“IN THE EARLY DAYS, BEING PART OF A SMALL TEAM MEANT BEING HANDS ON, COVERING ALL DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE BUSINESS AND ALL PROCESSES WERE MANUAL.”
Vinay Lal our export sales champion.
We are proud to be a part of this project when considering the socioeconomic benefits that will be provided to the people of Tonga. In these tough times everyone appreciates a helping hand.
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The Patton Press
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Patton Australia Managers Meeting A highly successful meeting of Patton Australia Managers and JV‟s was held at the Mantra Tullamarine Hotel in Melbourne on March 22 and 23. There were 16 people in attendance at the meeting which also included Sameer Handa and Craig Parker from Patton NZ. This was also the first meeting attended by Barry McDonald and Craig Killalea from Patton Albury. The meeting started with individual reports from the branches and JV‟s. Following this was a review of the current year and the budgets for 2011/2012. Craig Parker then reviewed our existing capital equipment and gave an update on changes implemented over the past year. He also spent some time working thru all the new products planned and also discussing technical issues and as expected he received valuable feedback and input from the team. There was lively debate on several key issues so it was a great opportunity for the various managers to get their point across. Sameer gave a presentation on the Patton Group activities globally which was most enlightening for all and even more so for the newer members of the team. He also talked about five year business plan for Australia. A Team Dinner was held on the Tuesday night at the Riva St Kilda which was on the waterfront at St Kilda beach. This was an opportunity for the group to socialise informally and no doubt many great discussions were held and decisions made throughout the evening! All in all the meeting was a great success and all attendees left in a positive frame of mind ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the coming financial year. Australian Managers during Manager‟s Meeting – 2010
BDT Product Training
INDUSTRY APPRENTICE
After numerous requests to BDT to conduct their Silver Training course closer to home for northern customers BDT took up the challenge and conducted a full day‟s training in Whangarei north of Auckland on Wednesday 30th March at the Kingsgate Hotel. BDT displayed some of their Aircon product range, followed by a tool check.
As part of Patton‟s ongoing commitment and investment in the future of the refrigeration industry we have commenced training of apprentices from service companies to enable them to pass the unit standard that relates to manufacturing experience.
There was an enthusiastic response with 30 tradesmen attending and interest shown following the course has been very encouraging for a follow up session. The benefits of product knowledge will not only increase our understanding of the product but on-going aftersales service and increase our future sales. The course was facilitated by Peter Hudson from BDT and was organised and supported by our North Shore staff Les Miller as well as Johan Neethling.
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With help and support from our Manufacturing Manager – Thantsin Maung and mentoring from Inesi Taufa, our latest candidate from Patton Auckland Manufacturing team sometime serious... Chillex Services, Manese has completed his two week‟s work experience in manufacturing. Manese is the third apprentice from Chillex that has completed their two week training. The apprentices commence on the ground floor in the manufacture of items such as the rack featured below. They are guided through everything from the drilling of holes in the initial framework to the installation of pipework and the braising of joints ...and sometime celebrating team work. and componentry.
Issue 2, April 2011
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When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going! In early February we received a call from Simon Gunn of Eastside Refrigeration in Hamilton to arrange a site visit to the Goodman Fielder Riverlea Bakery in Huntly as their production line water chiller had failed. This unit provides 6°C water which is inserted directly into each piece of dough, the plant has a capacity of 55,000 loaves per day. Due to Patton Auckland manufacturing being under pressure with other large projects, we were in discussion with Wayne Beattie in Christchurch to commence manufacturing this piece of equipment on the morning of the 22nd February. As the tragic events of the day unfolded, we realised we wouldn‟t be getting the Christchurch branch to build this, and our thoughts and prayers turned to all the affected people in this region.
Custom built water chiller for
The next day Goodman Fielder contacted Eastside Refrigeration to advice they had lost Goodman Fielder. their entire Christchurch production capacity and suggested they wave a “magic wand” in Auckland to get the water chiller built and sent to the site urgently. The unit Patton needed was a 30HP Copeland Semi Unit matched with a Patton HQAC3500 Condenser and a GEA M57-50 heat exchanger, all pre wired and ready to go. Paul Parkes, Thant Maung and the team stepped up to the job completing the unit in record time by Friday March 11th. Once commissioned, the bakery will be able to increase their production enabling adequate supply to the Christchurch region. This is a noteworthy example of the extent of quality co-operative team work within the Patton family. Stuart Meehan Hamilton Branch Manager
Love is blind!!!
Old is GOLD
Forever Young!
At 68 years of age, Ian Mcnicoll has had an amazing journey in the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry over a 48 year period. Ian started his trade back in 1962 in South Africa in both commercial and domestic refrigeration and air-conditioning, and immigrated to Australia in 1999. At the ripe old age of 64, Ian started his own business trading as Mcnicoll Heating & Cooling and has been a loyal customer to Patton Australia over several years.
Rain, hail, sleet, snow and lots of sunshine!!! Harvey and Lexie Turner experienced them all on their recent 100km, 6 day hike of the Grand Traverse and they loved every minute of it! The Grand Traverse combines both the Greenstone and Routeburn Tracks traversing wild and scenic mountain country between Hollyford and Dart Valley. The magnificent South Island Beech forest with the soft moss carpets below, untouched for hundreds of years, left one feeling very humble and insignificant. They returned home feeling enriched by the beauty of nature.
It is often said in sporting coaching vernacular, pertaining to athlete‟s careers – “It doesn’t last forever son”. Perhaps some things do last forever, and the staff at Patton Thomastown witnessed this first hand when Ian brought in a 48 year old Imperial Eastman tube cutter he had since he was an apprentice. His timing was impeccable as Nigel Muggridge from Broadtech Supplies & Service Pty Ltd was conducting a training session at Patton Thomastown on Imperial Tools at the very same time Ian called into the branch to showcase his beloved 48 year old Imperial Eastman tube cutter. This is testament of good customer service and the friendly staff at From left: Ian Mcnicoll, Nigel MugPatton Thomastown. gridge and Marco from Friglec.
From left Martina (guide) Harvey and Lexie
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The Patton Press
The Patton Press will be a quarterly publication. Please submit any news from your branch or in and around your district. We are interested in stories about our people, their exploits, the company and its progress and articles of general interest. Please forward all correspondence to newsletter@pattonnz.com
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