Engineering apprentices key to Winiata and Anderson succession plan

When ATNZ Account Manager Dave Bennett started his light fabrication apprenticeship as an 18-year-old in Levin during the mid-70s, he inadvertently became part of three generations of engineering training connected to Winiata and Anderson Sheetmetal.

Dave learned his trade on the job at Douglas Healy Ltd, mostly from qualified tradesman Stuart Anderson and senior apprentice Wayne Winiata. Working closely with Stuart for 18 months on a new heating and air conditioning system at Horowhenua Hospital, the young apprentice learned technical and valuable life skills.

“Stuart was a great teacher of his trade, a very patient man and a great mentor for life. He was very quiet and considered and a real craftsman,” recalls Dave.

“He modelled what being a good man was about, and often, in the early stages of life, I would think, ‘Hmm, what would Stu do?’ and try to react the same way.”

When Dave became a father at just 19, Stuart’s tales of what he was doing with his own kids provided valuable guidance. Dave and his current wife of 30 years now have a blended family of six sons and 13 grandchildren who live within 10 kilometres of them.

Stuart and Wayne started their own engineering business, Winiata and Anderson Sheetmetal, in 1978. In 2017, after a successful 40-year business partnership, it was acquired by Phil Winiata and Callum Henden, two of the company’s former apprentices, whom Dave had mentored as an ATNZ account manager.

A year after qualifying as a sheet metal worker, Dave left Douglas Healy’s and continued in the trade, eventually starting his own engineering business in Paraparaumu in the 1980s. In 1998, he sold his share to his business partner because he didn’t want to get to 60 and think, ‘Oh, I wish I had done something else’.

Becoming an ATNZ account manager in 2004 saw him mentoring hundreds of apprentices. He also reconnected with Stuart and Wayne when he took over the Levin area for ATNZ in 2006 and became an account manager for part of Callum and Phil’s apprenticeships.

The quality training Dave received from his early trainers was evident in the young apprentices he mentored 30 years later. “You can see Wayne and Stu painted all over those two in the way they do things and work,” says Dave.

“They are pretty focused young men; they found their niche and enjoy what they do.”

After some years out of ATNZ, Dave rejoined the organization in 2017 and began talking to Stuart and Wayne about their retirement succession plan, which he says can be difficult in a small town. By then, Phil and Callum had returned to the business after stints overseas.

“You can sell it to someone from out of town, but there is no goodwill in it once you’re not there. The key to their successful transition was Phil and Callum dealing directly with the customers so that they wanted to talk to them because they were looking after their job,” says Dave.

“Then Stuart and Wayne started to work in the business three days a week. It took 12 months or so, but the handover was quite seamless. Rather than one day, it is owned by Stuart and Wayne, and the next day, it’s owned by Callum and Phil.”

However, the story does not stop there. Early 2020, Dave was contacted by a career advisor from Horowhenua College in Levin and asked to come and explain engineering apprenticeships to a small group of senior students she thought would do well in this field.

After the initial discussions, Dave interviewed a young man named Peter Lawrie-Coombes and thought he had the right attributes and attitudes to be a good apprentice. Peter was introduced to the team at Winiata and Anderson and started doing some after-school work and then some part-time work so both parties could see how it would work.

Eventually, in August 2020, Peter signed up for a Light Fabrication apprenticeship with the company. Dave mentored him until his role changed, and he had to hand Peter over to another experienced Account Manager, Alan Lockett.

Alan guided Peter through the second half of the qualification journey, and it was a great pleasure for Dave and Alan to jointly present Peter’s completion certificates.

Credit must also be given to the original owners of Winiata and Anderson, who invested in the young men of their time to train the people who are the present owners, and to Callum and Phil, who have invested time and resources into Peter.

The structure of an apprenticeship dates back hundreds of years, but the format of experienced people sharing skills in a work environment is timeless. If done correctly, apprenticeships provide the next generation of skills that the industry needs.