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Speaker 1: Haw can it We pran to support the A and

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Speaker 1: Z Business of the Year Awards. The Yellow Evening was

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Speaker 1: held on Friday night at the Stunning Aviation Museum. It

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Speaker 1: looks so cool with those planes suspended from the roof

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Speaker 1: and the lighting. A sellout crowd of four hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty in attendance, everybody looking dapper. One hundred and eighteen

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Speaker 1: entries were chopped down to fifty finalists before Christmas and

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Speaker 1: they were celebrated on the nights. We also found our

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Speaker 1: supreme winner for twenty twenty six. Congratulations Greg Donaldson Contracting,

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Speaker 1: Greg Donaldson.

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Speaker 2: That's you, Yeah, that's me, all right, morning moke.

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Speaker 1: What's the win mean?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's just amazing. I don't think it's completely sunk

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Speaker 2: in yet. Yeah, sort of. It's not something that I

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Speaker 2: would go out and seek. We were pushed quite hard

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Speaker 2: by Diane Hobby or office manager to get out there

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Speaker 2: and show the community what we do. But in the

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Speaker 2: past I've just relied on doing a good job and

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Speaker 2: doing it once and doing it right. And I started

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Speaker 2: to do that without then that we have got nothing.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it's how I've always promoted the business. I

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Speaker 2: guess by word of mouth. But yeah, this has been

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Speaker 2: phenomenal and to win so many categories and be runner up,

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Speaker 2: I'd just like to take a moment to think and

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Speaker 2: congratulate everyone that did into and A and Z and

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Speaker 2: ADC and the category of sponsors, like, it's no mean

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Speaker 2: feat and it's a fantastic thing for Ashburton. It puts

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Speaker 2: us on the map as a community.

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Speaker 1: Too, right to solid mentra do it once, do it right?

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Speaker 1: How did the journey start? Do you remember the genesis?

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Speaker 2: Ah? When I was a little kid, I really wanted

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Speaker 2: to be a machine.

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Speaker 1: Operator who doesn't loved diggers.

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Speaker 2: And my father was always adamant that, you know, you

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Speaker 2: should have a trade, but I was very mechanical. So

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Speaker 2: I started at that Black Clothes as a machinist and

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Speaker 2: went on from there to own the Mountaine his garage

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Speaker 2: at about twenty years old. And yeah, it grew quite

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Speaker 2: rapidly from there, and it sort of with the truck

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Speaker 2: and later on a digger, and so then I sort

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Speaker 2: of had them both going and sold the garage and

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Speaker 2: carried on contract and come outside base and we've just grown.

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Speaker 1: From there and how far have you come? How big

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Speaker 1: is the operation now?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Well, you know, it's hovering around fifty five staff.

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Speaker 2: And and yeah, like when we started out, it was

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Speaker 2: just actually the late Alan Dungee, Russell Stanley and myself

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Speaker 2: in the contracting and we just was the three of

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Speaker 2: us for quite a few years just doing what we could.

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Speaker 2: But then we bought Glossops and ash Burton in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and one, and yeah, it's just changed everything.

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Speaker 1: I've seen some pretty impressive bits of machinery rolling around

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Speaker 1: on the back of those red trucks these days. What's

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Speaker 1: your favorite piece of cat.

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Speaker 2: Oh, they all are, really but I guess I guess

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Speaker 2: the player. You know, like that come out of a

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Speaker 2: bit of family disaster and the cost of putting stuff

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Speaker 2: in the ground, you know, electricity in the ground pair

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Speaker 2: cable and engineering repairs. Colin Hunt and his team helped

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Speaker 2: me design and develop that, and you know it's yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's been a pre.

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Speaker 1: To fill some people in here just quickly. This is

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Speaker 1: what needed you the Excellence in Technology and Innovation Award

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Speaker 1: on Friday Night. It's a special kind of plower that

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Speaker 1: can put cables in the ground without having to do

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Speaker 1: too much manual labor and disturb the environment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's reduced to cost phenomenally and it goes

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Speaker 2: into the bedding and look, it's not the only one

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Speaker 2: in the world. But when I went to build it,

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Speaker 2: it was about eighteen months of design went into it

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Speaker 2: before it become real, and we had to get a

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Speaker 2: worldwide patent on it for financial reasons, and we did that,

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Speaker 2: and so the patent's office searched the world for someone

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Speaker 2: doing the same thing. There was plenty of people doing it,

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Speaker 2: but they didn't have the same ability to power and

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Speaker 2: so deep in one path. So we regranted a patent's

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Speaker 2: right until two and thirty six. I think it is Wow.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that something else that was recognized on

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Speaker 1: Friday or somebody else? Should I say Big Mike with

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Speaker 1: the Emerging Leader awards, so changing of the guard as

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Speaker 1: I sort of get the sense he's running the day

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Speaker 1: to day. Now, how's that transition been? Is it tough

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Speaker 1: taking a step back or is it rewarding?

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Speaker 2: Definitely is because you know, you started from such a

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Speaker 2: young age with you know, do you doing it all yourself?

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Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden you've got to, you know,

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Speaker 2: prove your work. You get an aunt and.

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Speaker 1: You're telling me what to do now A bit of that,

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Speaker 1: but yeah.

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Speaker 2: At the end of the day, there's the three boys

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Speaker 2: and proud of them. They are all in the business

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Speaker 2: and different apartments and lanes in the workshop and blacks

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Speaker 2: and the drilling and he's been doing that for about

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Speaker 2: fifteen years. He's a master at that, the direction of drilling.

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Speaker 2: And then Michael's stepped up to the general manager. And

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Speaker 2: it's pretty good because over the years I've definitely, you know,

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Speaker 2: I've had a bit of pressure on to do everything

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Speaker 2: myself and I've always just done it, you know. And

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Speaker 2: but yeah, that's really quite proud for that to be happening.

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Speaker 1: That is pretty special. Well maybe not so much do

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Speaker 1: it once, do it right, do it many times, but

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Speaker 1: continually right and setting the standard and recognized as our

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Speaker 1: supreme winner at this year's Business of the Year Awards.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations to yourself and all of the crew at GDC.

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Speaker 2: Great Donathan, thanks very much for this, luc That much

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Speaker 2: appreciated