Graham Coe once ran the construction company he co-owned, Coe and Lewer Builders but his current workload is now orientated around bettering the building industry across the board. He travels the country a lot judging properties for House of the Year, something he has been doing for eleven years, attending Master Builders board meetings and working for BRANZ; so time away with his loved ones is precious - as is the chance to do some fishing and diving.

Being made a life member of the NZ Master Builders Federation and the Auckland Master Builders Association, as well as having BRANZ ask him to do more years as director and chairman than what had previously been the maximum for someone to be allowed to hold the position, were two highlights in his career.

“Building has been very good to me, I always say that. I love going to work, I love it,” Mr Coe said. “One of the things I say to my kids is that at the end of the day if you go out into life with a passion about everything you do, it’ll happen for you.”

Passion is a word that comes up often in conversation with Mr Coe. He describes himself as passionate about each facet of his work, and proves it daily with his dedication to the industry.

At Master Builders, of which he was president in 2000, his work involves trying to progress the quality of the industry.  One thing he enjoys about judging House of the Year is its focus on excellence and defining standards, therefore raising the bar of what defines quality building. As chairman of BRANZ he also likes to see betterment of the industry encouraged.

At 15 he began a five year apprenticeship in carpentry and joinery.  After a total of eight years with his first employer, he went out on his own and built four houses for PTY Homes  for The NZ Steel Company that was expanding. After that he joined forces with Tony Lewer, a fellow builder he’d met through their wives who were at the time both young mothers at the same Plunket groups. One job led to another and after eighteen months of building together, the pair formed a company which went well for a further three years then they expanded when the established family owned company where Mr Coe first did his apprenticeship came up for sale.

“I had a good relationship with them even though I left and that wasn’t done thing, to leave and go into opposition with the old boss, but I didn’t consider myself competition because they were quite a big company,” Mr Coe said. The deal buying the business included a joinery shop and all the stock.

“They made an offer [Tony Lewer and I] couldn’t refuse. We took it over and that was our depot for 30 odd years. For all but three years of my career I went to same premesis every morning to go to work, all my working life. It’s quite a hard case,” he smiled.

It employed thirty staff at its peak.  In the 1970s they built about 80% of everything constructed half way between Pukekohe and the Waiuku District. By the time the company was retired, still with 16 staff, it was about 5%. “That’s how much it had changed,” Mr Coe said. The  company constructed hundreds of new houses, light commercial projects including a civic centre, schools, churches, offices, retail buildings and many various alteration jobs. Coe and Lewer Builders trained many apprentices and in one case, it even trained the two sons of one of its earliest apprentices.

Mr Coe said that the recent period had been the worst decline he had seen in the industry. Advice he would give builders today is to position themselves very carefully. He often sees builders driving around in “flash vehicles”, but warned against spending unwisely and stressed the importance of having systems in place to ensure better productivity.

“Last year [Fletcher Building chief executive] Jonathan Ling spoke at the Master Builders annual conference in Napier about “trimming the ship”. So many people out there in business can’t do what they have to do because they think it will right itself if they leave it til tomorrow  but it won’t. You’ve got to take an action. If something is not working you’ve got to take an action to correct it. If you don’t, you’ll pay the penality in a different way. It’s a difficult thing to say and do, but I’ve seen a couple of very good friends of mine have very good businesses go belly up,” Mr Coe said.

“I’m pretty much a  black and white sort of a guy, I find it easy to make the decisions that need to be made. When I do my job I’m very serious about it - I’m serious and I like it at the same time. I’m serious with a passion, I’ve always got that. I’ve always said the day I see my jobs as a chore I’ll quit. But it’s time for me to stand down in a couple of years anyway… Change is healthy, you’ve got to have new people with different ideas, viewpoints and styles. I’ll miss it, don’t worry about that. I don’t tell anybody that, but, I really will.”

Mr Coe worried his longevity in the industry could be seen as a bad thing - “Oh no, here’s that old guy again” - but the  building industry is lucky to have his pragmatic passion.