Waikato Business News July/August 2020

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2020
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they have been turning their
focus to the UK, where they
have the National Grid as a
major customer.
Junge sounds confident
about their ability to deal with
Brexit. “The main concern that
we’ve had with Brexit is the
ability to get our imports from
New Zealand over the border,
just because of the volume of
stuff that’s been coming from
Europe which has flowed
through previously - so the
bottleneck that creates at the
border.
“It’s been good to see that
the government has been
working on a free trade agreement
with Britain,” he says.
“We haven’t seen anything
that’s too much of a threat to
us.”
More immediately, they
have been dealing with the
impact of Covid-19, including
a week-long shutdown of
the factory during uncertainty
at the start. They were helped
by being deemed an essential
business, both in security and
animal management.
And an average looking
March became a stellar one
as it became apparent in New
Zealand and Australia that
lockdown was looming.
Junge gives a McDonald’s
outlet as an example. It had to
shut down and had never been
unstaffed before, so wanted to
put in an alarm system. Also,
when the police, who are a
Gallagher customer, commandeered
a building in Wellington
they needed a security
system, he says. “So we
were back in the next morning
shipping that to them and
it just ramped back up from
there when it became apparent
that we were essential and
needed to keep the wheels
turning for people.”
Gallagher has ridden out
global supply chain challenges
with few disruptions. Nevertheless,
Covid-19 has had an
impact. Junge took over the
global general manager role in
March 2019, and saw 25 percent
revenue growth in his first
year, from $99m to $125m for
the division.
We talk about the
security of security
- there’s no point
having your access
control system as
tight as you like if
someone can walk
up to the server
that it’s running on
and gain access
“Since then, of course, the
world has turned quite a bit.
It’s not been terrible for us, but
we were definitely well below
the average that we’ve had for
the previous six months. So
we’re just slowly climbing
back into it.”
Research and development
spending is continuing
unabated as they take a longterm
view, and they are continuing
to hire.
“As we go forward now,
we are having to to make sure
that our investments in people
- and we are starting to invest
in more people in key areas -
are rifle shots of investments
whereas prior to Covid, we
Mark Junge
had a bit of a shotgun really,
because we had been growing
so strongly with security.”
Gallagher has made senior
appointments to support its
security arm in both its existing
enterprise business and
the newly growing area of
small businesses. Rachel
Kelly joined from Nyriad as
chief product officer in Enterprise
Solutions on 30 March,
and was followed by Meredith
Palmer, from Smartrak,
who started as chief solutions
officer in Small Business
on 14 April.
The latter is an area of
opportunity for the company,
which has until now focused
on larger enterprises, including
government, with its security
offering.
An intruder alarm for small
businesses was launched in
Waikato and Auckland last
year, followed by access controls,
and with video about
to roll out. It gives a business
owner the capacity to
do everything remotely via
an app, including setting the
alarm and monitoring possible
incidents.
“It’s gone from, when we
only had an intruder alarm
it was an expensive intruder
alarm system, then it becomes
a pretty cheap access control
system and when it’s a video
it’s got some real compelling
commercial value.”
They hope to be installing
in Australia by the end of the
year. “That’s quite exciting.
And it’s at quite a different
scale than our existing enterprise
business - we’ve spent
25 years getting 15,000 sites
in enterprise. What we need
is 30 or 40,000 sites in four or
five years for this end of the
business. So it is quite fundamentally
different.
“It’s about evolving and
maintaining global relevance.”
Experience care as it
should be, experience
the Braemar way.
Braemar Hospital is one of the largest
private surgical hospitals in New Zealand,
Waikato and at universities
around the world.
“The Pā will provide a
high-tech, adaptable space
that will enhance student
learning outcomes, promote
social learning, and grow
the sense of community that
exists across the University,”
says Professor Quigley. The
Pā is situated on 7,200m2 and
will include a social, cultural
and learning hub, food outlets,
offices, a space for community
events and performances, and
a new University marae.
The complex will also
create a main entrance to the
University’s Hamilton campus
from Hillcrest Road and
enhance accessibility to the
rest of the campus.
Hawkins Regional Manager
Peter McCawe says his
team are excited to work
on the project.
“Hawkins is proud to continue
its relationship with
the University of Waikato,
having built the University’s
award-winning Tauranga
CBD campus last year. Like
the Tauranga campus, The
Pā’s design is stunning.
“It is a pleasure for our team
to be part of building some-
thing that will be a landmark in
Hamilton city.”
The building project will
provide a major boost to the
Waikato region, creating an
estimated 500 jobs across the
Hawkins team and other local
subcontractors, consultants
and suppliers over the two
year construction period.
Designed in consultation
with students, staff and community,
The Pā is the largest
capital works project in the
University’s history.
The Pā is scheduled for
completion in approximately
mid-2022
and it’s here in Hamilton.
With more than 100 world class specialists,
10 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 84 beds
including 32 private rooms, at Braemar
you’ll receive the highest level of care.
Choose the very best.
Choose Braemar.
braemarhospital.co.nz