It should not come as a surprise if the small rural Otago town of Lawrence becomes the centre of an international printed pen business.
Once before, in 1861, international eyes were drawn to Lawrence, and a fledgling nation prospered when gold was discovered there by Gabriel Read.
But should the world's attention once again turn to the small town, it would probably be due to the skills of two businessmen and a rather unlikely product - printed pens.
When you meet the two directors of Tuapeka Gold Print, Jim Robertson and Brad Houghton, you are left in no doubt that their global aspirations are not pie in the sky.
They have blended small-town patriotism, staff loyalty, rural hospitality and honesty with slick business sense to create a multi-million-dollar enterprise, and while they have every intention of taking their promotional products business to international level, one thing is constant: they will never leave Lawrence.
Certainly, they could have followed the footsteps of other corporates and shifted to Dunedin, Christchurch or even Auckland, but for every argument supporting a shift, Mr Robertson responded with an equally compelling reason to stay.
Most of those reasons revolved around loyalty to his staff and his community, which, in 20 years, helped turn a cottage industry into New Zealand's largest printed pen business.
The affection Mr Robertson and Mr Houghton had for, and the relationship they had with, their 70 staff, was obvious. Staff turnover is less than 3% a year.
A tour of the sprawling business was interrupted by first-name greetings, the odd gibe, and exchanges of news and pleasantries. The men had also stayed for economic reasons.
Rents and land prices were higher in Auckland than in Lawrence and would not be compensated by other savings.
Clutha Mayor Juno Hayes said Tuapeka Gold Print was an example of a business staying and succeeding in a small town.
"They are saying `We can do it and do it successfully'."
Mr Hayes also noted the efforts the company put into the South Otago community, and commended Mr Robertson, whom he knew well.
"He's a true community man, a very committed person."
Tuapeka Gold Print had expansion plans and, just as importantly, passion. In the next few years the two men intended replicating their Lawrence business in countries around the world, as they saw the opportunities.
"There is no reason we cannot come from a smaller market and be successful," Mr Robertson said, adding that many larger overseas companies in the same business often knew little about their markets.
It was not arrogance, it was playing to his strength, and Mr Robertson's strengths were knowing his market and contacts.
Even with 15 years' business experience, Mr Houghton was amazed at the contacts his business partner had built up, how he could open doors, and the respect in which he was held.
"The secret is his ability to develop relationships," he said.
A recent business venture illustrated that point, and Mr Robertson's knowledge of his market.
Clients wanted pens in their corporate colours, so now the company employed mainly retired people from Lawrence to assemble pen components in the colours requested.
While growth would capture new opportunities, it would also help secure the company's future in what they expected to be a difficult few years for all businesses.
The possibility of layoffs from the looming uncertainty was worrying, and they were pulling out all stops to avoid it.
Expansion plans were one way of bolstering the business, with Australia the likely first destination. For the past three months they had been working with partners there.
"We're confident we can get a foothold there which could be the difference in getting everybody through next year," said Mr Robertson.
The first phase of that growth plan was improving productivity through investing in a single planning and production system for the whole company that linked the production floor, sales, stores, marketing and accounting systems.
The goal, according to Mr Houghton, was to reduce double handling while retaining the ability to be flexible, and have a rapid turnaround of orders while still catering for orders of 100 to many thousand pens.
This would involve training staff and investing in computer software.
"It is all about removing waste. How many times does an operator need to tab through a client's entry. They should only do it once," said Mr Houghton.
Mr Robertson was vocal in his anger at the previous government's approach to business and especially how legislation, such as a fourth week's leave and extra compliance, hindered rather than helped increase productivity, which he saw as a major problem with many New Zealand companies.
In the case of Tuapeka Gold Print, he said policies such as a fourth week's leave reduced turnover 2%-3%, and increased the wage bill 2%-3%.
The best way to address issues such as climate change and depletion of resources, he said, was to be more productive from using the same resources.
The second phase of their plan was to change the culture and attitude of the business to one that constantly sought improvement, and that meant listening to staff ideas.
"We try to ensure everybody understands that they equally contribute to the business."
A business development team had been created to look at ways the company operated and how it could be improved.
The third stage was to introduce more automation and Mr Robertson said they were benchmarking Tuapeka Gold Print with international companies to drive improvement.
He may have started the business in 1987, but he was aware he did not have all the answers or the ability to take the company to the next level.
Realising the business needed someone with production skills, in 2006 he sold half of it to Auckland engineer Brad Houghton.
"It needed someone who shares the business ethics I subscribe to and [who] wanted a similar outcome."
He got that, along with complementary skills, in Mr Houghton, who, along with wife Melissa and 14-month-old daughter Georgia now lived in Lawrence.
Mr Houghton had worked extensively overseas, setting up businesses in the United States and China, and he also created and patented a shower valve, which he later sold.
It was while taking a year off that he set out 10 rules that would have to be met before he bought a business. They covered economic performance, market potential, and other such attributes.
Tuapeka Gold Print met every one of those.
The economic reforms of the 1980s forced Mr Robertson's hand.
Born and raised on a Lawrence farm, he left school after his fifth-form year and started working as a contract weed sprayer.
But the then finance minister Roger Douglas in 1987 cut subsidies for weed control and Mr Robertson found his business decimated.
"It seemed like the world had come to an end, but I realised I had been living in a fool's paradise. After 10 years I had not made a fortune and I started to wonder if it was what I wanted to do."
He answered a newspaper advertisement and bought a small printing machine and began printing business cards part-time.
Clients started asking if he could print pens and, eyeing an opportunity, he branched out.
He was competing with two other companies but he said their pens were poor quality and they took six weeks to process an order.
"There was a niche market you could drive a jumbo jet through."
By 1991, one year after starting, the company was the second biggest printed pen business in New Zealand, selling one million pens.
By 1993, with sales of three to four million pens, it was the largest.
This year it expected to sell 12 million pens, more than half the New Zealand market. The secret then, as it remained today, was being flexible and giving the customers what they wanted.
But being flexible and accommodating also involved long hours.
Mr Robertson recalled walking home at 4am one Christmas morning after filling an order, a regular occurrence in those early days, to be greeted by a milkman on his rounds.
The milkman gave him his milk and asked him to deliver milk to his neighbours. It was then that Mr Robertson realised he had to get organised, employ some staff and take the business to a new level.
Profits have never driven Tuapeka Gold Print. They were viewed as little more than a measure of how the business had performed.
Rather, it was the passion for the business, and the desire to grow the business, secure orders and satisfy customers, that got Mr Robertson and Mr Houghton out of bed in the morning, they said.
