MAY 2024
Fosters – thriving at 50
Foster Construction held a glitzy celebration in Hamilton to celebrate its 50th birthday. Director and shareholder Leonard Gardner tells senior writer Mary Anne Gill why the proudly Waikato firm has survived the building industry’s ups and downs.
Waikato
· Offers flexibility · Stock Approx $130k · Exclusive Branding rights to products · Turnover 2024: $515k, SDE Profit 2024: $128k*.
Butchery Business
Waikato
All LINK NZ offices are licensed REAA08
Waikato
$1,800,000
· Services Blue Chip clients · Diversified income stream · Steel & aluminium design & fabrication · Solid reputation
linkbusiness.co.nz/WK00389 Rick Johnson 021 991 485 rick.johnson@linkbusiness.co.nz
Photo: Michael Bradley.
$393,000
· South Waikato Specialist Butchery business · $190k pa · Diverse customer base · Top quality plant and chattels
linkbusiness.co.nz/WK00406 Scott Miller 027 301 6543 scott.miller@linkbusiness.co.nz
Engineering Business
linkbusiness.co.nz/WK00357 Andrew Whyte 022 097 0065 andrew.whyte@linkbusiness.co.nz
Awesome Childcare
Waikato
$1,350,000
· Option to purchase freehold · Licensed for 65 children · Consistent occupancy · Dedicated teaching team
linkbusiness.co.nz/WK00379 Therese Bailey 021 707 641 therese.bailey@linkbusiness.co.nz
UNDER CONTRACT
Waikato
$900,000
· Natural Remedies Retail Brand · Manufactured locally in New Zealand · Fully relocatable, run from home office · Established and profitable · Both B2B and B2C business model linkbusiness.co.nz/WK00402 Alanah Eagle 021 606 345 alanah.eagle@linkbusiness.co.nz
more demand more enquiry more value BUY & SELL WITH THE BEST
LINKBUSINESS.CO.NZ
Refer to Broker
CON TIN UED ON PAGE 8
0800 225 999
Online & Flexible
“When things are good, it’s very good, but when things are bad, it’s awful.” The Global Financial Crisis in 2008 was one of them although Gardner says it was the following year which was the testing one for them helped by the Claudelands Events Centre project. “It’s all character building stuff,” he says. A book published to mark the 50th anniversary recalls directors saying at the time: “In these tough economic times, the Fosters’ good name gets our foot in the door of many projects. Please do everything you can to preserve the Fosters’ reputation, from being proactive in health and safety, to looking after with care your part of the construction, to contributing to the team”. A big part of construction is managing risk which Fosters does by a mix of projects – 40 per cent of which are industrial. “We’re not immune to anything but I like to think we understand risk.” Plus, the company chooses its friends well. “There’s too much at stake to just throw in a price. We have 200 staff so we can’t do dumb stuff.” Leonard Gardner speaking at last year’s Waikato Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
Thinking of selling?
have been owned since 2018 by the Foster Group Custodians Trust which distributes its profits back into the Waikato and Bay of Plenty communities in a philanthropic move he cites as a powerful process. Gardner is a trustee of the trust which supports the Waikato Chamber of Commerce business awards, the Chiefs, Boon Street Art Festival, Community Enterprise Leadership Foundation, Tauranga Arts Festival, Balloons over Waikato and Momentum. Staff have the opportunity to donate $500 on behalf of the company through the trust to a charity of their choice – Women’s Refuge, Pink Shirt Day, Relay for Life and various sports and cultural clubs have benefited since 2019. The trust came out of a strategy session shareholders had about seven years ago when they looked at how the communities had supported Fosters through their journey since its foundation in Te Rapa, Hamilton in April 1973. The New Zealand construction industry has had its difficulties, times Gardner describes as “brutal”, but which Fosters seems to overcome through the strength of their relationships.
Start here with a confidential call.
L
eonard Gardner had already racked up eight years with a leading Hamilton accountancy firm when he joined Foster Construction in April 2003 as the company accountant. Still in his 20s, he knew he wanted some commercial experience at a corporate first before buying his own business so applied for the job at Fosters. Two years later he “rocked up” to Fosters’ property legend Colin Wade. “I said I was off to look out for a business (to buy) and he said, ‘why not buy into Fosters?’” Why not indeed? Eighteen years later Gardner – now 46 is still there. Companies Office records show him owning 25 per cent of Foster Construction Group which has an 84 per cent shareholding in Foster Construction. He is usually the man standing front and centre smiling broadly at various public events and is one of five directors and eight shareholders. But it is the shareholder which owns 20 per cent of the company Gardner points to as giving him several proud Fosters’ moments. Those 19,999 shares – previously held by Wade –