Nick and Amy Peacock started from scratch when they switched from solid satisfying rural careers to building a new fencing contracting business, Ridgeline Fencing, in Waipukurau, in the Central Hawke’s Bay.
The change required “a big mental step”. Nick says it has been worth it.
“We are creating something for ourselves, and we are in charge of our own destiny.”
About Nick and his family
Nick had fenced with contractors in Australia, the UK and the Hawke’s Bay and throughout his farming career and both were no stranger to running businesses for other people. After throwing the idea of fencing contracting around for a couple of years, the Peacocks started Ridgeline Fencing in September 2019 specialising in rural, lifestyle and horticultural fencing.
Starting up, the biggest challenge has been finding good staff. Ridgeline Fencing runs three full-time staff who work alongside Nick. Amy runs the finance and administration side of the business. Then, they have a couple of young lads who come in every school holidays, and they’ve just taken on a 16-year old school leaver.
Nick says they’re lucky. “We are still a young business. We have a really good crew, and we are looking forward to growing our staff and growing a happy team. They are our most important asset. There’s an expectation in the industry that if you develop your staff, and you do your job right, they will fly the nest. For us, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing all of them go on and do great things with their lives.”
Working on large projects in New Zealand
Taking on a large fencing project for New Zealand’s national transport agency has been a way to expand and challenge the team.
It’s all conventional fences sectioning off the roadside planting along the Woodville-Ashhurst Highway. This first stage is close to 20kms. Nick says the project has taken a lot of pre-planning going on before even putting a post in the ground, a lot of forward planning, logistics, making sure everything’s up to spec, managing staff and travel. Getting the posts in the ground was another story.
“It’s quite steep country, very rocky. For about a third of the fencing we were actually above the windmills and looking down. Sometimes you thought you didn’t need a staple to hold the wire on to the fence. The winter has been very wet. It’s been tough on the guys and the equipment. There were some pretty trying conditions for a while.”
“The biggest thing for us is making sure that the job doesn’t get monotonous for the crew. We were able to work it with the guys dipping in and out to other jobs, providing some variety, avoiding burnout, and ensuring no one gets fatigued from the same thing day in and day out.”
Work smarter, not harder
Amy and Nick approach fencing the same as farming, looking at ways to be innovative, to learn and grow. That’s where their motto of working smarter rather than harder comes in.
“Jobs like the Woodville-Ashhurst Highway are a really great example of just how important it is to have the right gear: our Stockade tools, post and batten staplers, our two rammers the tracked Evo Protech rammer and our dozer set up with Kinghitter Series 5 rammer.”
Nick Peacock
“We had a Stockade pneumatic batten stapler from right at the start. Obviously, it is miles better than hand stapling. It wasn’t until one of the guys who works for me said ‘have you tried the Stockade post stapler?’ I looked at it and I thought it would be a nice tool, but it would be another expense on a young business – by three weeks later I had bought my second one. That’s how good they are. They have saved so much time and effort. They are a brilliant invention.”
To learn more about our Stockade products, please visit www.stockade.com.