I recently had the privilege of presenting our third Stormwater Responsible Badge, which was awarded to one of our oldest and most loyal customers – Visy Recycling. I have been involved in the stormwater system at Visy since 2007 when the sand-peat filters were installed. Since then, we have grown with Visy, and together we have managed to bring their annual maintenance costs down from year to year.

We are truly grateful to the customers receiving Stormwater Responsible badges, for their support and their uncompromising efforts in keeping our waterways clean. Thank you.

We have designed this beautiful badge to acknowledge businesses who have made a consistent effort to maintain their stormwater assets. The maintenance we provide these customers serves four main purposes:

1. It reduces the risk of your stormwater system blocking up.
2. It minimises the levels of sediment being flushed out into the ocean.
3. It reduces the cost of urgent callouts and potential remedial work.
4. It ensures that your site is always compliant.

The criteria to qualify for a Stormwater Responsible Badge are as follows:

At 6.00 am on chilly winter mornings the best place to be is in bed with your eyes shut. But at 6.00 am each morning our team stand together in the cold darkness preparing themselves for another great day. I am in awe of my crew, and I respect the work they do. This is the time where Dutton Stormwater operators prove why we are who we are and why we are where we are. Soon the sun will shine bright again and we will dream of a bit of rain.

Here’s a picture of Masoud. I am always reminded of our resident Frenchman’s quote: “It’s only rain, you’re not gonna melt!”

Travels around Aotearoa

Our crew returned from a massive trip around the country servicing the stormwater devices for our national customers like Gull, NPD, Ryman, and The Church of the Latter-Day Saints. We are excited to announce that from March 2023 the duration of these trips will be halved.

We will be setting up a Class 3A truck in Christchurch which will be able to service any site. We have some of our best crew interested in flying the flag for Dutton Stormwater in the South Island and we are excited about the opportunity to grow our business and continue to add value to our customers in the South Island.

Goodbye to Sonny Chan

We have had to say goodbye to Sonny Chan. Sonny joined us 11 years ago when he decided to leave labouring on a farm in Hanau. He started as a Lollipop man at Victory Road on his first job and he ended up as our Health & Safety Manager. You will meet many people throughout your life, you will only ever meet one Sonny. Sonny is the best. I wish Sonny the best success, joy, and happiness for his new journey. My heart is always warm when I think of Sonny. Thank you, my friend.

Welcoming new crew

1. Nat is helping Claire in the accounts team. Welcome.
2. Mike has joined the Operations team and is driving our vacuum trucks. Great to have you on board.
3. Lucie is assisting the Operations team to plan and get work done. She is clear and very organised. Welcome.
4. Grant has come in to run the sales department. Full disclosure – Grant has been on my radar for many years. The time is obviously right.
5. Alok is a great Vaccum Truck Operator with a sunny attitude. What a great fit for our team.
6. Rupinder is a versatile technician who can drive a truck. I am so happy to have him on board.
7. Amy has been with us a while but has never been in front of Roman with the camera. Amy is super-efficient and amazing at asking customers to pay.

I want to wish you all the best until our next newsletter.

Thank you to our customers for your loyalty.

Thank you to our suppliers for working with us.

Thank you to our trucks for working so hard.

Thank you to my staff for directing our trucks.

Thank you.

Ed

We are a premier sponsor of the Stormwater Conference and this year we were lucky enough to be hosted in the Garden City at the marvellous Te Pai. We loved every minute of our time in Christchurch.

The lectures and workshops were enlightening as usual. The discussion hosted by Mike Hannah from Stormwater 360 on maintenance was far too short. We listened with interest to industry experts discuss the barriers to maintenance. It became apparent that the real pains when it comes to maintenance are live water in a vault and space. Hopefully these will be some considerations engineers will think about when specifying and designing these stormwater treatment devices.

Aside from the serious business of stormwater there was of course the spinning wheel hosted by Dutton Stormwater.

If your business card was pulled out of our box you had the chance to spin the wheel and whatever number it landed on, you multiply by $100. This lucky lady spun the 8!

As Ed prepares to visit his phenomenal parents in South Africa, we would like you to know you are in good hands.

Our GM Tracy will be running the business, and we will be doing everything we can to provide our unique ‘Dutton Service’.

We have had another wonderful Stormwater Conference in the beautiful Garden City where we learned from various industry experts. It was amazing to have a large contingent of crew down in Christchurch, especially considering our imminent expansion south next year! The personal highlight of the conference was the whole crew dancing in a circle at Fat Eddies until closing time!

New Vacuum Truck en route to Auckland.

We are trialling a new model of working. In partnership with the Waimea Group we have hired a marvellous 6500l vacuum truck. This truck is currently in Rotorua and is making its way back to Auckland, where it will focus on Soak holes!

We are committed to keeping New Zealand’s drains and filters clean.

View our Stormwater Maintenance Services

As we near the conclusion of quarter one of 2022 I would like to reach out to our customers and thank them for working with us during this outbreak. It has been a period of growth in both staff and turnover. It has also been a period of adjustment for our company.

One of our measures of how happy our customers are is the number of compliments our team get. For the last two months we have been receiving almost a compliment per day – which must be a good sign!

Thank you for keeping our spirits high!

Working smart in a pandemic

We have created a staggered start system where we have the ops crew working in “bubbles”, and the office is split into two, to avoid the risk of Omicron decimating our whole organization. Everyone, to a person, is working hard to be positive and do whatever they can to keep the business functioning.

Our services are still in high demand and we are ahead our workflow target for 2022 to date. Our operations crew continues to forge on bravely, despite feeling the effects of Omicron in this department. As hard as we try, we are getting positive cases, but work is still being done.

We work weekends too

At the beginning of this year we created a weekend call-out system. We have an administration person rostered on every weekend, and we a driver who can come and resolve your problem. Please call us if you have an issue on the weekend! We will sort it.

Welcoming new staff

We have taken the time to employ three outstanding people who will join us over the next three months. We will put pictures up of these individuals as they start. I am confident they will help grow our business and they will understand the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to make this company better than when they started.

Thank you to our wonderful people

Once again, I want to thank the amazing team that is Dutton Stormwater for the hard work they are doing. I want to thank them for the constant adjustments they must make. I understand your frustrations. We have come through tougher times than this, and we will come through this with our heads held high, and another knot in our story which makes us the special company we are.

Best regards,

Ed