Like many inspiring stories of Kiwi entrepreneurship and innovation, one of the country’s most well-regarded water and gas technology companies began life as a humble garage project. Ken Breckon joined that original company in 1986 to kickstart the plumbing supplies division. Ken and his late brother Peter acquired 50 per cent of the business in 1987; that same year, the business was renamed Hydroflow. They bought the other 50 per cent in 2000.
Hydroflow has always had strong links to the North Shore and has been based in Bush Road since 2005. The business currently employs 85 people in New Zealand, including 30 at the Albany head office.
At first, Hydroflow specialised in supplying pump shops and milking machine companies with predominantly rural water products. Over time, Hydroflow has evolved its technical expertise, and its offerings have expanded to cover six key market segments: plumbing, rural, fire and fabrication, HVAC, irrigation, pipe and infrastructure.
Many leading industrial names, including APEX and Bugatti, regard Hydroflow as pivotal for establishing and distributing their brands in New Zealand. The products that the business chooses to represent not only need to meet stringent quality standards but must also be backed up with excellent technical support.
In addition to technical excellence, CEO Kathryn Sixton says that the company is built on two other cornerstones, one of which is curiosity. “We constantly ask ourselves: ‘What do we not know today that we’ll need to know tomorrow?’ It feels like we have a million ideas to explore, coming externally and internally, and we have regular ideas forums to evaluate these.” The company is not hierarchical, so no suggestion is dismissed out of hand.
Co-founder Ken and Peter Breckon in 1991. Ken is now Hydroflow’s executive chairman. “He is one of the most energetic people you’ll ever meet.”
The other foundation is about retaining the values of a family-run business. It was arguably Ken Breckon’s relationship building that cemented the company’s future. Therefore, while there is always a drive for new product innovations, employees are encouraged to keep a sense of fun and remember the personal touches which form the basis of meaningful relationships.
Ken now serves as executive chairman and is still very much involved with the company. Many employees have been there for 10 or 20 years, and there is a strong focus on personal development and succession planning. If an employee expresses an interest in growing their skillset, genuine efforts are made to accommodate them within other areas of the business. The company cannot afford to be formulaic if it wants to look effectively to the future, so the team’s diversity is crucial too. After all, New Zealand is a diverse nation, plus Hydroflow deals with numerous global suppliers and brands.
As suppliers of water and gas products, Hydroflow is an essential service at every Covid-19 alert level. There is a shared sense of pride about how the warehouse teams operated during the March/April 2020 lockdown. It was a tough seven or eight weeks, with turnover cut to only 25 per cent of normal. The warehouse and customer service teams worked on-site through lockdown, and everyone did “an exceptional job” of taking care of their customers while also looking out for each other.
If any positive can be taken from Covid-19’s lockdown and travel restrictions, it has been the enforced opportunity for Ken and the team to step back from the business and think strategically. There had been a desire to automate the financial systems for a few years – and that was achieved in just 12 weeks! Where possible, the company has also strengthened its supply chain by looking more within New Zealand. And, there has been recruitment, taking advantage of the pool of specialised talent brought about by outbound travel restrictions and returning Kiwis.
Hydroflow is now “busier than ever”. Despite the ongoing travel restrictions, teams still feel connected, with numbers of staff choosing to return to the office increasing incrementally after each lockdown. “I think we’re definitely ‘more present’ in New Zealand – and that feels great.”
