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During a time of heightened frustration with his business website John read an article in the North Shore Times about a brilliant bunch of guys, their company Zeald.com, and their innovative approach to websites. John met with the team and was so impressed that he commissioned a new B2B (Business to Business) website for his business. |
One of the Baby Boomers in the team at Zeald.com, John has settled on the fact that he is an entrepreneur and salesman at heart. He has a talent for identifying opportunities, finding business solutions and developing strong relationships.
After leaving high school in Durban, John was drafted into the South African Navy, serving as an Able Seaman on a variety of vessels. It was during this stint in the navy that he developed an everlasting love affair with the sea – including surfing, surf ski-ing, windsurfing, scuba diving and sailing. These days this passion is restricted to fishing as often as possible from his Surtees Workmate tinny.
On completion of his military service John completed an apprenticeship as a Construction Plant Diesel Mechanic. This was followed by further years of study at the Natal Technicon, where he obtained a qualification in Mechanical Engineering.
In the late 70’s, John left South Africa on an extended OE and ended up working for a number of years as a marine engineer in the North Sea on an American pipe laying barge ,LB 27 owned by Mc Dermott Inc a large multi national off shore construction company . One of the contracts the barge under took was to lay pipe from the largest Oil Rig in the Norwegian Ekofisk field, this complex is approximately one mile from the flare stacks at each end. As the deck engineer on shift at the time John was part of a team that had to go aboard this rig at the start of the pipe laying operation. On board the team were housed in a free standing multi story 212 bed accommodation platform attached to the main complex by a walkway. A few years later this accommodation platform collapsed into the sea during a storm with great loss of life. A tragic event and one which John thanks his blessings that he was not personally involved in.
During this period John made enough money to enable him to indulge his passion for travel which leads him to extensively tour Europe, America and Australia over the next two years.
On returning to Durban, John worked in the chemical and oil refining industries with ICI and Mobil Oil. He married Candice, and as John says, “this was one of the smartest things he ever did”. Not only a wonderful wife & mother, Candice was also his valued business partner in all the ventures he undertook.
With the knowledge John had obtained working in the oil refining industry, in 1981 he started Inspection and Testing Services Ltd (ITS) a specialist service company to the South African Petroleum Industry. From small beginnings the company grew to become the market leader in bulk liquid measurement in Southern Africa and the Islands of the Indian Ocean. Overcoming stiff competition ITS became the preferred supplier to such recognizable names as Shell, BP, Caltex, Esso, Mobil, Total and Castrol.
With a staff of 37 full time employees and up to 350 contract workers, recruited for shut down work at petroleum refineries the company maintained an annual average growth rate of 22% over the 15 years that John owned the business. John has sold his interest in the business but it continues to thrive and has just recently achieved its 25th year of operation.
In 1997 John and Candice emigrated, along with their two young boys to New Zealand, settling on a Dairy Flat Lifestyle block just north of Auckland. Teaming up with a fellow South African immigrant he started the nautical giftware store, ALL AT SEA, in downtown Auckland. Over the years, the business grew into three stores and a wholesaling business – along the way John bought out his business partner.
These retail stores and the wholesale arm had a website of ancient design that was totally inflexible, so much so, that any changes to the pricing, products etc had to be done by the website company - at a cost of course. During a time of heightened frustration with this current website’s inflexibility John read an article in the North Shore Times about a brilliant bunch of guys, their company Zeald.com, and their innovative approach to websites. John met with the team and was so impressed that he commissioned a new B2B (Business to Business) website for ALL AT SEA. The result was a website way head of anything else on the market that his wholesale customers loved. Customers could view the product range and place orders at their convenience, on-line! No more pesky sales reps; they loved it even more!
John later sold the business and concentrated on getting the family lifestyle block back into shape ready for sale. John says that he now knows why real estate agents call them hardship blocks! Having sold the lifestyle block and moved to a small section in the suburbs it dawned on him that “there is only so much fishing a man can do ….” so John started to look around for another business venture.
When John heard that Zeald.com were looking for E- Business Consultants, and having experienced Zeald.com as a customer, he knew that this was the company for him – one that produces web based products that he can recommend with absolute confidence to his clients.
Outside of work, apart from his passion for boating, fishing and doing anything outdoors (tramping, camping, cycling), John is a family man at heart. He loves nothing more than spending time with them, especially his gorgeous little granddaughter Isabella. A keen and adventurous cook, he will feed you gourmet treats till you explode – as long as the compliments keep coming!
One of life’s secrets John has learnt is that one has to give to receive. He gets great satisfaction from helping people to achieve success, be it in business or life, and is always ready to pass on the benefit of his experience.
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