Established: 20 + Years

Location: Rotorua

Contact Name: Elise Pope

Website: www.popehomes.co.nz

Business mission and vision:
‘Your vision is our mission’ – Pope Homes ‘ Building with Integrity”

“Pope Homes is a locally owned and operated family construction business. We deliver honest, reliable and realistic guidance and support to our clients who have chosen to embark on a journey to transform or create their home.”

We have an amazing band of highly skilled and experienced carpenters and office support team who share our vision to provide exceptional service and outcomes for all of our clients. They are great mentors for our apprentices offering expert learning opportunities and strong awareness of industry regulations. We pride ourselves on having a tight team who value each other and who share our good old family values.

At the finale of all our new build projects we present our clients with a video showing imagery of their journey over the duration of the build. We always get such wonderful feedback and appreciation from them for this simple gift.

This is the first time we have entered an awards competition.

It seemed like the next step for us! Erin felt that he had soaked up worlds of knowledge and diverse experiences having lived and worked on Waiheke Island and then in the Uk for a number of years before returning to NZ. We felt like we had something really innovative and valuable to offer in our community.

Early on, the challenge was simply starting a new business in a new town. Igniting relationships with suppliers and contractors and competing for work in a relatively small location along side established builders, many who were born and bred here in Rotorua. Going the extra mile and doing the hard yards to earn a good reputation was the key to growing a successful business.

We have been pretty fortunate over the years to have managed to avoid truely detrimental challenges. Aside from the odd downturn in the industry and a decrease in workload from time to time, the main challenges we have encountered that have effected us significantly have been due to being let down by sub-contractors. Recently we took a punt on a new roofing contractor but unfortunately he turned out to be unreliable and dishonest and a very long story short, we have been left in a situation where we had disappointed clients and are significantly out of pocket. Fortunately these clients maintained their faith in us to deliver an outstanding new home. However, that said we have had to dig deep and move forward with a positive attitude and continue to strive to maintain our excellent reputation in our local region.

Well, we’re pretty stoked that 2 years ago we were able to finally move our business away from our family home. Taking the plunge to rent a workshop/office was a pretty big decision for us, however we felt that the time was right to take a leap of faith. Prior to this we always worked from our home office and garage, welcoming our clients and employees into our home whilst raising our family. But an increased staff count and the need to store tools and materials gave us the nudge we needed. The post-covid material shortages meant we needed to store materials as much as possible to maintain continuity for our clients and also to ensure our team had work to do. Like many small businesses during the covid years, we did our best to keep all of our staff employed and to top up their wage subsidies. 3 years on, it is really only now, that we are truely feeling the aftermath of those covid years.

Without a doubt, establishing a team of people who value each other and who feel appreciated and respected is by far the biggest success! We truely believe that without our loyal and reliable team we simply couldn’t pull off what we do!
We like to think that we ‘stand out’ from the housing crowds. Being a private building company we believe we bring the whole package. We offer a personal service for the entire project and more often than not our boys on site and our office administrator who has an eye for design, develop really neat relationships with the people whose home they are in.

Aside from our amazing team, we are very proud of our success. Beginning our journey as a husband and wife team, we have busted our bums to build our legacy business and raise our family. We were able to get involved with and support school events and sports teams which definitely benefited us along the way. 20 years on, our children are almost grown and our oldest is a 3rd year apprentice.

We are also super proud to have established a really great client base in and around Rotorua. We have many many happy clients who continually acknowledge their appreciation and share their success stories.

We have 11 in total. 5 LBP’S, 4 apprentices, 2 part-time admin.

There are a long list of contractors who we use on a regular basis. Long standing electrician, plumbing and gas fitter, drain layer, painter, plasterer, flooring contractors, architects, roofers, engineers, the list goes on. Most of our contractors are tried and true so we feel confident that they too share our strong values.

Our apprentices are students with Te Pukenga NZ Institute of Skills and Technology t/a BCITO. Senior carpenters are also doing supervisory training certificates through Te Pukenga. Our team are also trained in Health and Safety and basic first aid. We welcome all of employees to further their skill base, accept all professional development opportunities and keep up with industry changes.

Here are just three of our glowing most recent testimonials.

You certainly do all build Forever Homes…
Thank you seems so very inadequate – but they really are the only ones that work…
Thank you all…
Erin: from that first extreme day that you met us on site – in the pouring rain – still in your shorts – and you listened to our dreams and heard what we couldn’t yet see…
Thank You…
Elise: I didn’t actually meet you until later on – but a man and his business, cannot exist without a supportive wife…
Thank You…
LeeAnne: Actually, words seem inadequate – but here goes:
You listened to me…
You never told me what you do – but I valued your guidance so much, when I needed a starting place to look for help and ideas…
You were always patient with me…
You never minded how often I rang you – and you followed everything up immediately…
Thank you my Friend…
Layton: Russell even commented on enjoying working with you!!!
I valued your no-nonsense guidance…
When you gave me options on things – where I felt out of my depth – you offered me practical solutions…
Thank you for everything…
To all your men – some I met, some I didn’t: Thank you all for every moment you spent building us this beautiful home…
To the Kitchen people, Wardrobe people, Flooring people, Plumbing people, Painting people, Roofing & window people – I enjoyed working with all of them – I would recommend any of them to others…
Thank you…
It really is going to be a beautiful and easy home for us to enjoy!
Thank you again…
And I love, appreciate and value you…

M and R Jensen

We chose to work with Pope Homes for their personalised, customisable service with a reputation for quality finishing.

Coming into our build, we had a very specific layout and aesthetic in mind. The team paired us with an architect they felt would best suit our project and property and throughout our build, employed only trusted contractors with an equal standard of service.

We loved that we had the same team of familiar faces on-site for the entirety of our build. The boys battled unprecedented weather without complaint and our Foreman in particular went above and beyond to include us in every aspect of planning, scheduling and meetings as needed to ensure our vision came to life as we had dreamed of.

We are delighted with the end result and enjoy comments from visitors on the quality of finish. We felt included every step of the way and would have no hesitation jumping into another project with the Pope Homes team.

S and K Fiske

Many thanks to Erin, Layton and the team for their work on our new workshop and office facility for our rural contracting business.

Having previously used Pope Homes for a residential project, we knew we would get a quality job and we were not disappointed.

We would highly recommend considering Pope Homes for any building projects you may have.

Brett and Heather

Thats a tricky one! Being a small business owner is definitely not for the faint hearted!!

I guess we are fortunate that as employers we can make a difference for our staff. We can contribute to providing a happy and well-balanced work life balance and we encourage that too. We are very mindful that we must take care of our team. It is essential that they feel appreciated and valued. We try our best to have social time with them and include their families as much as possible.

Other benefits of being a business owner could be networking opportunities with other similar businesses and appreciation opportunities from time to time from suppliers that we regularly support.

We are optimistic that the future will be bright for small business owners.

We have regularly supported a number of community events, school sports teams and local family clubs over the years. We currently sponsor the Rotorua Commercial Travellers association and the Waiariki Football Club. Very recently we sponsored the John Paul College first XI girls football team to compete in the national secondary schools tournament. Pope Homes are also proud supporters of the Pink Walk for Breast cancer and the shave for prostate event recently held at the Novotel Rotorua.

We have also sponsored local families individually to help offer their kids opportunities to perform or compete in National and International competitions. Recently we assisted a young teenage woman towards her goal to compete in a dance competition with AmJazz in America.

We also strongly believe in supporting local and doing our best to support and promote other local businesses.

Pope Homes have been members of the NZ Certified Builders Association for many years.
In recent years Erin has been the NZCB regional president for Rotorua, supporting members in our area. He and our amazing office administrator Lee-anne organise networking breakfasts on a monthly basis. This provides opportunities for members to chew the fat, bounce ideas, challenges and concerns off one another as well as find solutions. We are very lucky to be hosted each week by Columbus coffee in the Rotorua central mall for these meetings.

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