www.patttonnz.com

On 22 February at 12.51pm our beautiful

Garden City was rocked by a 6.3 magnitude

earthquake making headlines around the

world. Roads were severely damaged making

it difficult for ambulances and emergency

teams to reach the injured, compelling emer-

gency crews to set up triage units in open

parks. The quake killed at least 166 people

and devastated Christchurch city. Prime Minis-

ter John Key said after the earthquake “we

may be witnessing New Zealand‟s darkest

day”.

New Zealand often experiences minor tremors

which rarely cause damage but this quake was

shallower, flattening buildings, severely dam-

aging the city's historic 130-year-old Anglican

cathedral. The New Zealand government wel-

comed rescue teams from around the world,

including Australia, Japan and the United

States. Communities reached out by housing

families, schools opened their doors offering

free uniforms and books, trying as best they

can to keep life as normal. To mark the day a

week after the event Prime Minister John Key

called for two minutes' silence at 12.51pm,

again the country stood united.

The shake was felt strongly at Patton Christ-

church, located at 26 Kingsley Street. All areas

inside the branch were shaken up although

damage was largely superficial, the worst

damage being part of the shelf structure col-

lapsing, a mezzanine area destabilizing send-

ing stock crashing to the floor

and the floor lifting and part-

ing at expansion joints.

For our Christchurch staff the-

se events were very traumatic

and life changing experiences

that many are still unable to

put into words. They consider

themselves very lucky that

they did not experience loss

of loved ones or property.

Communities are living in con-

stant fear of another earth-

quake finding themselves

jumping at any loud noise. On

entering any building people

tend to look for the quickest

and safest way to exit the building just in case.

Travelling anywhere at any time is a night-

mare, fear of going into shopping malls results

in very limited shopping activity, people

choose to shop at supermarkets that don‟t stack

stock above head height in the isles. With no

adequate sewage system for at least 12

months, some households will have to make use

of chemical toilets making day to day life ex-

tremely uncomfortable. To avoid any health

risks all fresh water is supplied from out of

town until the tap water is rid of contamination.

Socialising and entertainment is limited as most

of the CBD cafes, restaurants and bars are

gone.

While other outlets were closed Patton Christ-

church remained operational, providing a vital

service to the local industry. All phones were

diverted to our manager Wayne Beattie‟s mo-

bile until the building could be checked, given

a green sticker and the clean-up could begin.

Manufacturing jobs were picked up by Auck-

land Branch to minimise delays to South Island

customers and all overseas shipments diverted

to Wellington Branch. When compared to

many other businesses and people, Patton

Christchurch and team have been lucky but this

does not diminish the trauma of the whole ex-

perience. Cometh the hour, cometh a great

team we are very proud to have them as part

of our Patton family.

Christchurch Quake – A perfect test of resilience

Patton Christchurch Team from Left: John Clemence, Brian Yates, Tony Lovell, San-di Lambert, Victor Beever, Ken Thompson, Wayne Beattie and Sheryl Johnston.

Issue 2, April 2011

FROM THE DESK OF OUR CEO

2

ACREX PATTON INDIA 2

LEAN THINKING 3

Willis Central Project 3

GM INTRODUCTIONS 4

SOLS BREAD BRISBANE 5

COOL STORE FOR TONGA 5

PATTON AU MANAGER MEETING

6

BDT TRAINING 6

INDUSTRY APPRENTICE 6

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH!

6

OLD IS GOLD 7

FORVER YOUNG! 7

PATTON AT A GLANCE 8

Inside this issue:

The Patton Press

www.patttonnz.com

Welcome to the second

issue of our Newsletter!

We continue to be faced with

multiple challenges both locally

and internationally. I am pleased

to report that both our staff and

customers in Christchurch and

their families are safe and their

business operations are back on

track.

Our Japanese suppliers and their staff and families are

also safe and we are in regular contact to see if we can in

provide any assistance to them.

2011 has started with a lot of action and activities all

around for the Patton Group of Companies. In New Zea-

land we all have been very busy with "Lean Management"

initiative appropriately named BOB "Be our Best".

In India we participated in local trade show called ACREX

during February in Delhi. The response for Patton India

was very positive. We were represented by eight of our

main principals from USA, Scotland, China, Italy, Israel &

Thailand.

In Australia branches, after suffering some losses from Bris-

bane floods, are back on track and showing very positive

growth prospects.

During October we plan to exhibit at trade show in

RHVAC Bangkok, Thailand.

I look forward to your continued support and encourage-

ment during 2011.

With very best wishes for the rest of 2011.

Sameer Handa

CEO, Patton Group

From the desk of our CEO

ACREX is India‟s major exhibition for the HVAC&R industry,

now being held every year by rotation between New Del-

hi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

This years exhibition in New Delhi was not only the biggest

ACREX so far but also one of the best arranged. This event

was handled by the Indo German Chamber of Commerce

for the ISHRAE / ASHRAE – Indian chapter who was the

organiser. Total exhibition was spread in 7 different halls

and more than 50,000 visitors covered this exhibition dur-

ing three days.

Patton India had a booth of 87 m² which was almost ten

times bigger than the booth taken by Patton India during

its first time at ACREX three years ago.

The Patton booth not only displayed Patton capital equip-

ment but the entire range of products which is distributed

in India by Patton such as Embraco, Dorin, Uniweld, Appi-

on, Supco, Fieldpiece, Mueller, Suniso, Henry, Evco and

more.

Technical and senior sales people from all our principals

were with us at the booth attending to various queries from

the customers. Sameer Handa was also available during

the 3 days of the exhibition.

On 25th February a special Patton Evening was held at the

Hotel Connaught which was attended by more than 50 of

our key customers from all over India as well as an inter-

national suppliers.

After the exhibition a visit to Agra was arranged for a

group of overseas suppliers who were visiting India for the

first time. They stayed in Agra for the night and early

morning visited the Taj Mahal – one of the Seven Wonders

of the World.

The next ACREX will be held in Bangalore during February

2012.

Patton India participated in ACREX

Sanjay Kapoor, Sameer Handa and Vinod Rekhi at ACREX in Delhi. Our overseas suppliers during ACREX exhibition.

Page 2 The Patton Press

www.patttonnz.com

Patton has taken up a number of initia-

tives recently with one being “The Com-

petitive Edge Program” via Skills4 Work.

The program is based on the principals

of Lean Management and involves pro-

cesses such as “5S” and works towards

continuous and sustainable improvement

throughout the business, overtime it will

involve all who work at Patton.

The first implementation of Competitive

Edge is in April, targeting our Auckland

assembly operation. Next on the agenda

will be our Auckland Distribution Centre.

These are exciting times and through the recent global recession we have main-tained our position and continue to grow. Our aim is to build and deliver better, more competitive, innovative product, on time, to specification and budget.

HotChilly has been engaged to provide

and install the mechanical services por-

tion of the project. The mechanical de-

sign includes a four pipe chilled and

heated water system serving 1,374

chilled beams. There are three chillers

with a total capacity of 2500 kW and

two boilers with a total capacity of

3000 kW. The piping system is specified

to be a PP-R product and Aquatherm

was the chosen manufacturer.

The product used for this project was

Climatherm pipe with Faser composite

layer. Most services, including the major-

ity of piping, will remain exposed on

completion. For this reason, Telecom spe-

cifically requested use of the black UV

resistant sleeve on Climatherm piping

used on the floors they are occupying.

All other floors are supplied with stand-

ard Climatherm piping. Each floor of

Willis Tower consists of approximately

1000m of pipe and each floor of Boul-

cott consists of approximately 1300m of

pipe. Pipe sizes range from 200mm in

the plant room and risers to 20mm at the

chilled beam connections. In total, 20+

km of Climatherm piping will be installed

in the Willis Central project. Congratula-

tions on a job well done!

Patton-Mechanical Division in conjunction

Wellington Branch has been successful in

securing a major project in Wellington

worth over a million dollars. The project

is known as Willis Central and Telecom is

the prime tenant. The development start-

ed in January 2010 with our first con-

tainer of Aquatherm pipe, and it is due

to be completed in July 2011 when the

building will be handed over.

Willis Central will house around 1,700

employees from across all divisions of

Telecom. It consists of two environmental-

ly sustainable 5 Green Star-rated build-

ings linked by a central glass atrium to

create a campus-style development of

approximately 26,000 square meters.

The Boulcott Tower is a completely new

construction but Willis Tower is an addi-

tion/renovation of two existing buildings,

Airways House and Tisdalls. The new

Willis Central development will feature

active chilled beam cooling technologies,

energy efficient lighting, solar panels

and possibly wind turbines, a thermally

active exterior, and during construction

will use materials and technologies which

minimize environmental impact.

Lean thinking

Into the future

“OUR AIM IS

TO BUILD AND

DELIVER BETTER,

MORE

COMPETITIVE,

INNOVATIVE

PRODUCT, ON

TIME, TO

SPECIFICATION

AND BUDGET.”

Willis Central Building

Finished work: Climatherm Piping

5S Specialist: Performance Improvement Team

A place for everything and everything in its place.

Binesh Singh with his custom built work trolley.

Issue 2, April 2011 Page 3

www.patttonnz.com

Stuart is married with three adult children and three grandchildren. He has two

daughters, one living in Wales, the other in Christchurch and a son living in Taiwan. He lives

on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with his wife Moira where they recently celebrated

their 40th Wedding Anniversary.

Stuart began working in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning industry with Bonaire in

Dunedin. During his time in the industry he has worked for Patton New Zealand for 22

years, he was National Sales Manager for RPW in England for two years, and more re-

cently was Regional Manager for Emerson Climate Technologies (Copeland) based in Syd-

ney.

Stuart rejoined Patton in January 2010 as General Manager for Patton Australia and is

based at our Brisbane Branch. He is delighted to be back with the Patton organisation and

is looking forward to the challenge of implementing the business plan which has been set in

place for growth in Australia, which includes the establishment of new branches and Joint

Ventures.

Our Leaders around the

Vinod is a qualified electrical engineer and spent most of his 40 year career

with Danfoss J.V. India. He joined as Sales Engineer and resigned as Executive

Director in 2006.

During 2007 Vinod built his private brand “Synergy” for HVAC&R controls, accessories

and tools. This brand was later sold to Patton Ltd when in November 2007 Patton Refriger-

ation India Pvt Ltd was incorporated as a 100% subsidy of Patton Ltd. Vinod was appoint-

ed Managing Director for the company with three employees selling „Synergy‟ and „Patton‟

brand products.

During the past three years the company successfully added many well-known brands such

as Henry, Mueller and Embraco to name a few, making Patton the national distributor cov-

ering all four regions with offices in Delhi, Pune & Chennai employing 20 staff. During the

coming year Vinod will be working on assembly units for manufacturing Patton products in

India.

Vinod Rekhi – India

Philip started with Patton in 1982 as a sales rep in the fledgling Wellington

Branch and became manager the same year.

Within a year the branch moved to a new location in Petone that provided better custom-

er access and more room for stock. Sales grew over the next few years and the branch

was moved to its current bigger and better premises five doors up the road. The branch

survived a couple of recessions and continued to grow slowly but surely.

Patton Wellington broke into the Dairy Industry two years before the big merger, that is

Fonterra, and this created a significant opportunity. In 2007 Philip moved to Auckland as

National Sales Manager then became General Manager in 2008, he continues to enjoy

the contact customers and staff.

Philip considers himself fortunate to have made many friends amongst his customers. Rela-

tionships and trust, fronting up and support, that‟s how he sees the future of Patton. “We

are a great team of people”.

Philip Hitchins – New Zealand

Stuart Smith – Australia

Page 4 The Patton Press

www.patttonnz.com

With a refrigeration background Nirmal joined Patton Refrigeration, Auckland in February 1992. When he joined, the company was owned by Harvey Turner and Wayne Berry. Nirmal considers himself blessed to have gained a high calibre of understanding of Patton products from the directors as well as key people such as the late Allan Doncaster. In the early days, being part of a small team meant being hands on, cover-

ing all different aspects of the business and all processes were manual.

Over the years though many company changes, including ownership and the introduction of computers, Nirmal advanced from customer service to customer service manager (the role encompassed export sales to the South Pacific), inventory manager and finally to supply chain manager. In January 2009 Nirmal relocated to Melbourne and joined Patton Austral-ia as national operations manager for 18 months. He briefly left the company but re-joined

in September 2010 to become General Manager of Patton Aero in Thailand.

With approximately 20 years‟ service in the Patton group, Nirmal has surpassed many chal-lenges. He is enjoying life in Bangkok and is excited to lead this new and developing ven-ture in Thailand.

Nirmal Gaunder – Thailand

Cool store for Tonga

Tonga is a beneficiary under the European Union

STABEX project which is aimed at providing eco-

nomic benefits to member nations and their con-

stituents. Through a collaboration between Ton-

gas‟ Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and

Fisheries (MAFFF), the Ministry of Finance and

Planning,, Kool Tonga Ltd and Contracting Au-

thority representative Dr Viliami T. Manu Patton

NZ Ltd was chosen as the company to provide

the technical know-how and the top quality re-

frigeration equipment to fulfil the requirements of

this project.

The equipment selected amongst other compo-

nents comprised of a 50.0 hp condensing unit

powering a blast freezer and other units de-

signed to chill a large cool room. We at Patton

needed to size the equipment carefully and cor-

rectly to ensure correct chilling of such products

as Taro, Cassava, Lu and other local products in

a way that meets the stringent requirements of

the modern export market.

The initial signing of the contract was undertaken

at the end of October, with the design and deliv-

ery to be completed towards the end of Decem-

ber. Careful planning and checking every step of

the way resulted in successful execution of the

customers‟ instructions.

We are proud to be a part of this project when

considering the socioeconomic benefits that will

be provided to the people of Tonga. In these

tough times everyone appreciates a helping

hand.

Shortly after the introduction of the

new J series evaporators, Brisbane

Branch engineer, Jason Pearce, in

consultation with the customer, Sol

Breads of Oxley, Brisbane, and the

contractor, Brisbane Refrigeration,

selected this equipment, based on

the customer‟s requirements and the

time frame. In spite of the demand-

ing needs of Sol Breads the equip-

ment “worked a treat” and everyone

involved was delighted with the out-

come.

“The most pleasing aspect is that

because the service, equipment and

time frame all came in above expec-

tations we are virtually guaranteed

the next job on this site”.

Deal with the best and we will take

care of the rest!

Expertise, Delivered!

“IN THE EARLY

DAYS, BEING

PART OF A SMALL

TEAM MEANT

BEING HANDS

ON, COVERING

ALL DIFFERENT

ASPECTS OF THE

BUSINESS AND

ALL PROCESSES

WERE MANUAL.”

Another high performance Patton unit in Sol‟s bread.

Vinay Lal our export sales champion.

Issue 2, April 2011 Page 5

www.patttonnz.com

As part of Patton‟s ongoing commit-

ment and investment in the future of

the refrigeration industry we have

commenced training of apprentices

from service companies to enable

them to pass the unit standard that

relates to manufacturing experience.

With help and support from our

Manufacturing Manager – Thantsin

Maung and mentoring from Inesi

Taufa, our latest candidate from

Chillex Services, Manese has com-

pleted his two week‟s work experi-

ence in manufacturing. Manese is the

third apprentice from Chillex that has

completed their two week training.

The apprentices commence on the

ground floor in the manufacture of

items such as the rack featured be-

low. They are guided through every-

thing from the drilling of holes in the

initial framework to the installation of

pipework and the braising of joints

and componentry.

INDUSTRY APPRENTICE

Patton Australia Managers Meeting

A highly successful meeting of Patton Australia Managers and JV‟s was held at the Mantra Tullamarine Hotel in Melbourne on

March 22 and 23. There were 16 people in attendance at the meeting which also included Sameer Handa and Craig Parker

from Patton NZ.

This was also the first meeting attended by Barry McDonald and Craig Killalea from Patton Albury.

The meeting started with individual reports from the branches and JV‟s. Following this was a review of the current year and

the budgets for 2011/2012.

Craig Parker then reviewed our existing capital equipment and gave an update on changes implemented over the past year.

He also spent some time working thru all the new products planned and also discussing technical issues and as expected he

received valuable feedback and input from the team.

There was lively debate on several key issues so it was a great opportunity for the various managers to get their point across.

Sameer gave a presentation on the Patton Group activities globally

which was most enlightening for all and even more so for the newer

members of the team. He also talked about five year business plan for

Australia.

A Team Dinner was held on the Tuesday night at the Riva St Kilda

which was on the waterfront at St Kilda beach. This was an opportunity

for the group to socialise informally and no doubt many great discus-

sions were held and decisions made throughout the evening!

All in all the meeting was a great success and all attendees left in a

positive frame of mind ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities

of the coming financial year. Australian Managers during Manager‟s Meeting – 2010

After numerous requests to BDT to

conduct their Silver Training course

closer to home for northern custom-

ers BDT took up the challenge and

conducted a full day‟s training in

Whangarei north of Auckland on

Wednesday 30th March at the

Kingsgate Hotel. BDT displayed

some of their Aircon product range,

followed by a tool check.

There was an enthusiastic response

with 30 tradesmen attending and

interest shown following the course

has been very encouraging for a

follow up session. The benefits of

product knowledge will not only

increase our understanding of the

product but on-going aftersales

service and increase our future

sales. The course was facilitated

by Peter Hudson from BDT and was

organised and supported by our

North Shore staff Les Miller as well

as Johan Neethling.

BDT Product Training

Patton Auckland Manufacturing team sometime serious...

...and sometime celebrating team work.

Page 6 The Patton Press

www.patttonnz.com

When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going!

In early February we received a call from Simon Gunn of Eastside Refrigeration in Hamil-ton to arrange a site visit to the Goodman Fielder Riverlea Bakery in Huntly as their pro-duction line water chiller had failed. This unit provides 6°C water which is inserted directly

into each piece of dough, the plant has a capacity of 55,000 loaves per day.

Due to Patton Auckland manufacturing being under pressure with other large projects, we were in discussion with Wayne Beattie in Christchurch to commence manufacturing this

piece of equipment on the morning of the 22nd February.

As the tragic events of the day unfolded, we realised we wouldn‟t be getting the Christ-church branch to build this, and our thoughts and prayers turned to all the affected peo-

ple in this region.

The next day Goodman Fielder contacted Eastside Refrigeration to advice they had lost their entire Christchurch production capacity and suggested they wave a “magic wand” in Auckland to get the water chiller built and sent to the site urgently. The unit Patton need-ed was a 30HP Copeland Semi Unit matched with a Patton HQAC3500 Condenser and a

GEA M57-50 heat exchanger, all pre wired and ready to go.

Paul Parkes, Thant Maung and the team stepped up to the job completing the unit in rec-

ord time by Friday March 11th. Once commissioned, the bakery will be able to increase

their production enabling adequate supply to the Christchurch region.

This is a noteworthy example of the extent of quality co-operative team work within the

Patton family.

Stuart Meehan

Hamilton Branch Manager

Old is GOLD

At 68 years of age, Ian Mcnicoll has had an amazing journey in the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry over a 48 year pe-riod. Ian started his trade back in 1962 in South Africa in both commercial and domestic refrigeration and air-conditioning, and immigrated to Australia in 1999. At the ripe old age of 64, Ian started his own business trading as Mcnicoll Heating & Cooling and has been a loyal customer to Patton Australia over several years.

It is often said in sporting coaching vernacular, pertaining to ath-lete‟s careers – “It doesn’t last forever son”. Perhaps some things do last forever, and the staff at Patton Thomastown witnessed this first hand when Ian brought in a 48 year old Imperial Eastman tube

cutter he had since he was an apprentice.

His timing was impeccable as Nigel Muggridge from Broadtech Supplies & Service Pty Ltd was conducting a training session at Patton Thomastown on Imperial Tools at the very same time Ian called into the branch to show-case his beloved 48 year old Imperial Eastman tube cutter. This is testament of good customer service and the friendly staff at Patton Thomastown.

Custom built water chiller for Goodman Fielder.

Love is blind!!!

Rain, hail, sleet, snow and lots of sunshine!!! Harvey and Lexie Turner experienced them all on their re-cent 100km, 6 day hike of the Grand Traverse and they loved every minute of it! The Grand Traverse combines both the Greenstone and Routeburn Tracks traversing wild and scenic mountain country between Hollyford and Dart Valley. The magnifi-cent South Island Beech forest with the soft moss carpets below, untouched for hundreds of years, left one feeling very humble and insignificant. They returned home feeling enriched by the beauty of

nature.

Forever Young!

From left Martina (guide) Harvey and Lexie

From left: Ian Mcnicoll, Nigel Mug-gridge and Marco from Friglec.

Issue 2, April 2011 Page 7

www.patttonnz.com

The Patton Press will be a quarterly publication. Please submit any news from your branch or in and around your district. We are

interested in stories about our people, their exploits, the company and its progress and articles of general interest.

Please forward all correspondence to newsletter@pattonnz.com

Page 8 The Patton Press