He was one of 100 full- and part-time workers who lost their jobs when Mainland Products closed its Kiwi Meats plant in Oamaru.
Today, Mr McNeill (38) runs his own gardening and landscape business, Lawn Plus Oamaru, that provides 2.5 full-time equivalent jobs, and he has just bought a giant mulcher and another tip truck.
Oamaru people now fear the town's second-biggest employer, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, which employs about 340 people, is about to embark on a round of redundancies because of a shortage of orders.
Mr McNeill (38) went through a similar process to that facing Summit workers - the waiting game, knowing there was not enough work; the final decision, then, unemployed, working out how to provide for a family.
He was a pork boner for Fraser's Bacon, then Mainland, for about 20 years.
In the three to four years leading up to the closure decision, the workforce knew the plant was not making money and their jobs were in jeopardy.
For those years, staff felt they were "swinging in the wind", waiting for a decision.
"We had it on our minds that something was going to happen. We always felt that, any day, the axe would fall," he said.
When it came "it was gut-wrenching, particularly when you are providing for a wee family (he and wife Tracy have two children, aged 7 and 9 years)".
"It was an odd feeling, knowing you were losing everything.
"But there was also a sigh of relief when it came to a head, like a big weight off your chest."
Mr McNeill worked on contract, between about 4.30am and 11.30am.
However, he had established a part-time mowing business in the afternoons after Mainland stopped all overtime.
Once redundant, he turned his attention to this enterprise, promoting it by distributing about 600 flyers around Oamaru.
Now, it has become a full-time business, employing people and doing anything from cleaning gutters and windows to landscaping.
It continues to grow, recently securing the contract to maintain the Waitaki Girls High School grounds.
And his advice?
"Life goes on. You can't look back. You have to keep going forward."
