About Us
History
The company has been in business since 1907 when George Hadlee and Frank Clough formed a partnership and created Hadlee & Clough plumbers, gasfitters and bell hangers.
George Senior’s two sons Victor and George, who after both serving in the 2nd World War, returned into the family business, Victor a Craftsman Plumber Gasfitter & Drainlayer and George a qualified Accountant. In 1946 Lloyd Williams also brought into the partnership and the company name was changed to Hadlee & Williams.
In 1964 at the age of 15 Ross Brunton started his apprenticeship with the company and went on to become a Craftsman Plumber & Drainlayer and eventually the foreman of the company. He left the country for a brief spell to live and work in Australia for a couple of years but returned back to New Zealand and in 1975 he brought Lloyd Williams out of his share of the business. In 1977 the Hadlee’s retired and Ross & his wife Shirley brought the company outright.
In 1996 Ross’s youngest son Andrew joined the firm and subsequently qualified as a Craftsman Plumber, Gasfitter and Drainlayer. With the introduction of directional drills in the same year Andrew has progressed into the running of the drilling operation and is one of the most experienced operators in the country.
In 2005 Ross’s eldest son David returned from overseas to join the firm after spending the past 10 years working as a consultant project manager and quantity surveyor in both Wellington and London and obtaining his Bachelor of Construction majoring in Quantity Surveying.
In 2007 in conjunction with the firm turning 100 years old David and Andrew joined Ross and Shirley to become Directors and Shareholders of the company with the ambition as the Hadlee family had done before them of seeing this local family firm successfully on its way towards another 100 years in business.
The many locations of Hadlee's
In 1907 the original workshop was situated in Wilson Street, Timaru on the site of the present DB Tavern behind Woolworths.
Their first move happened in the 1920’s when they relocated to Sophia Street which is now the site of the Timaru District Library.
In 1946 they moved across the street next door to the old auto parts building, now the AMI Insurance building.
In 1980 Ross Brunton built a new workshop at 5 Bank Street and over the years developed a truck workshop and yard across the road.
By 1998 Hadlee’s had out grown yet another workshop and when the former IHC building which just happened to back onto the truck yard came up for sale it was the perfect opportunity to move across the road to the company’s present site at 7 Theodosia Street.
