Established: 7.5 Years
Location: Christchurch
Contact Name: Justin Mouw
Website: www.tigerhospoequipment.com
Business mission and vision:
To Provide High Quality Equipment, Service and Advice across our Broad Customer Base.
“We provide Catering equipment and associated goods to the Hospitality Industry, Healthcare & Marae”
Honesty, often we find the larger companies specify equipment based on their sales targets and over spec the equipment the customers actually need that for their unique operation, whether its a small Cafe, busy Restaurant or Bulk Catering facility such as Marae or Rest Home kitchens, we understand the various food preparation and delivery methods for each sector and advise accordingly, we want the best personalised solution for each client.
Well, we did achieve second place in this competition last year, so there is that, hospitality awards tend to go to the bigger players with higher profiles.
Having been in the industry for many years as a senior person in one of the largest supply companies I could see the waste within the organisation, the anti competitive behaviour and the willingness to over sell for the bottom line, I felt I could do it better, leaner and more ethically.
One of the biggest barriers was getting Dealers & Manufacturers on board to allow us to sell their products, fortunately I have some very good relationships at the management level in these companies and we quickly proved ourselves as great ambassadors for their products and services, they had less problems with the end user largely becuase the equipment we specified was fit for purpose.
Covid and the devastating effect that had on Hospitality and turnover was a significant challenge, we reviewed the sectors we supply to and directed our focus on those existing customers, mainly Healthcare and Marae, those projects are often years in the planning, this made us better in operating in those spaces and has helped the long term growth within the business as a whole.
Business in general no matter what you are involved in has its peaks and troughs, keeping a cool head when you have a slow month, staying consistent in your desire to help people, keeping an open eye to new technologies and changes in requirements from the customers by remembering to listen first are vital factors to making this business a growing success.
Firstly we survived the Covid years. Secondly we are often told by Manufacturers and Suppliers that the large opposition companies complain about us being in the market, this ,for us as an underdog is a mark of our success and respect within our industry. Our growth particularly this year has been so strong we are looking to add more people in the very near future.
How we are viewed and appreciated as a trusted supply partner over all the different segments of the industry, it is very rewarding to help people and organisations improve what they do day in day out through our knowledge & expertise.
We currently have just two directors, soon to be a third and we rely heavily on our support partners and contractors, our os we dont view ourselves as small, we are very efficent and wouldn’t be able to produce the results we have without our larger team.
Everyone from Logistics, Marketing, Gas Fitters, Plumbers, Appliance Service Techs, Designers, Stainless Fabricators the list goes on.
We regularly attend Manufacturers product trainings to keep up with changes in Appliances and learn about new equipment coming into the NZ Market.
Largely anecdotal, we hear the words thank you every day and our customers actually mean it, we are in the business of helping people solve their issues and improve their operations.
I guess it’s the sense of accomplishment to start something from scratch in a very competitive low margin industry, to have taken the plunge despite the risks and succeeded, self respect is great for mental health.
We sponsor school fundraising for field trips and sporting competitions, mainly through my business partners daughters school in Cromwell, recently we have supported the businesses involved in a Plate for the City Mission fund raiser here in Christchurch by a whole bunch of us Hospo people going around as many places as we can this month to show our appreciation for what the local hospitality industry is doing for the City Mission by sponsoring a meal on the menu and donating a portion of the bill to the City Mission, out of this we are looking to supply some equipment at cost price when the mission re builds their kitchen to feed people in need, satisfying.
As mentioned above we do a lot of work with Marae around NZ, we assist with quotes for funding applications, often we speak to the funders directly to explain the needs Marae have for their communities in terms of meal preparations, we recently helped a Rugby Club with their renovations, again a lot of time spent in consultations with individuals that have little or no experience but represent their not for profit organisations.
We are an honest small business operating in an industry that is full of large legacy companies which are being bought up by overseas investment companies, we are proud to be wholly NZ owned & operated so our profits stay in NZ and support local Manufacturers and sub trades.
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