I THOUGHT it was only farmers that got to work 50 years or more in one job - but I stand corrected.
Many of you will know Colin Stubbs, and his journey of 50 years in the job is far from typical.
Colin was honoured with an evening with clients and friends at the Hamilton Exhibition building on Friday September 7.
Colin has seen ‘Windmill’ evolve from a humble service station into ‘Windmill Ag’, with David Brown, Deutz and Chamberlain brands, through expansion and company sales into a massive multi-national company, now under the Brandt banner.
Colin first met Menno Peltzer as a teammate playing hockey. Colin described Menno as a Dutch immigrant who was an absolute ‘people person.’
“Menno was the son of a wealthy Dutch engineer and had grown to be very hands on and capable in his own right,” he said.
“He built the Windmill service station buildings on Portland Road, Hamilton, in 1964, based on servicing the needs of the community.
“It was a simple principle - provide what the people need.
“During my time with him, he also built four yachts and was a member of the Portland Yacht Club.
“I could go on and on talking about Menno and the things he did - he was an amazing man.”
Menno was in need of another worker, and spotted Colin’s mother walking by and approached her.
The conversation that ensued was – ‘would Colin would be interested in working for Menno?’
Colin was still at school (with ambitions of becoming a plumber) when he started work with Menno at the BP Service Station on Portland Road, Hamilton.
After school, Colin would ride his bike to work, where he would sweep the driveway, clean the oil bottles, wipe down the bowsers and pour petrol.
The opportunity then arose for Colin to become an apprentice mechanic in 1975, finishing the apprenticeship in 1978.
Colin made mention that Menno made his own batteries and they were ridiculously heavy.
They were labelled with a ‘Windmill’ sticker and the service station also stocked Michelin tyres.
Wolfgang Schuler was the head mechanic and knew everything there was to know about fuel injection and diesel motors.
“I know this because he went on holidays and I had to fill in for him and it was bloody difficult,” Colin said.
Among the memories was an old International front-end loader named Samson - “there was no OH&S (occupational health and safety regulations) at that time”.
“It had a forty-four-gallon drum of concrete on the back of it,” he said.
“At times when we were unloading mowers and hay gear, we would throw a couple of guys on the back just to help weigh it down.”
“When assembling a Deutz mower this was a new revolutionary mower at the time - a twin drum mower it was only five and a half feet wide but it took us about three hours to put it together.
“By the time the end of the season came, we could put them together in about an hour.
“Farmers were picking them up and mowing at ridiculous speeds - I remember a guy picking one up around one o’clock and phoning us back at four (o’clock) asking if we had another one - he had wrapped it around a pole.
“When he brought it back, it literally had the two drums touching together.”
Colin spoke about the growth of Windmill Ag and the agriculture sector around Hamilton as a whole, but also the low points.
Agriculture is notoriously reliant on good weather and markets - 1980 saw the industry really suffering.
Menno asked the workforce to go back to a three-day week - which they did.
The agricultural sector was not improving and in very late 1980 before Christmas, and planning a wedding in the May of 1981 - Colin had to be laid off.
“I managed to pick up some casual work on a farm at Digby with Tom Francis and various other jobs, until returning to work for Menno when the agricultural industry was recovering,” he said.
As time went on the business took on the John Deere dealership in 1976, and rapidly changed the trajectory of the business.
Colin recollects how Menno needed to find another salesperson. After considerable thought, Colin approached Menno about a change of role in the business, and went from mechanic to a John Deere salesman.
Colin laughed at how he did not do well with mathematics at school and his handwriting was terrible, to then go on to become - all he could do was talk!
With the John Deere franchise came enormous change.
The building was re-modelled, the service bay was closed up and became ‘spare parts.’
John Deere tractors were built in Welshpool in Western Australia, and they had air-conditioned cabins and a split transmission - they were quite revolutionary at the time.
Colin said he was very lucky to be invited to tour the Deutz factory in 1986 after the dealership won ‘Dealer of the Year.’
In 1988, Menno walked away from the Deutz dealership after Deutz dealt directly with Alcoa in Portland cutting the dealer out.
This was a trying time for the dealership, but John Deere released the 40 and 50 series tractors which took off and the company never looked back.
The area covered by Colin was extensive, from the border through to Princeton and up.
This was pre the mobile phone era “so most of the day was spent on the road and phone calls were made from home in the evenings”.
“I had a little desk set up with the phone and I would come home at around five o’clock and start making the calls.”
Ash Wednesday was another period that comes to Colin’s mind.
He arrived at a farm to meet the farmer and asked where the home was.
He was told “it was just over there - it exploded when the fire was still about two kilometres away”.
“I still remember to this day, where that was - and that pile of bricks.”
There have been many periods of ups and downs - the wool boom and then the crash.
Colin said that his shoulders will never really recover from that time.
“Seeing pits of sheep being buried because they were worth nothing. I remember that my head space was pretty terrible too.”
In 2001 when Menno Peltzer retired from the business, his shares were sold to Phil van Wegen.
Again, the business grew further.
In 2009 a new site on the Portland Road was purchased and a purpose-built facility established.
State of the art equipment was now housed in the mechanics area and administration had its own set of offices.
This was the first time that Colin had his own office.
The yard was now extensive and perfectly positioned to promote the brand and the machinery perfectly.
The growth in the business continued.
Windmill Ag sold its remaining shares to the Canadian majority owner, Cervus Equipment Corporation and finalised the acquisition of the Melbourne John Deere dealership Western Farm Service.
Cervus runs dozens of John Deere dealerships in Canada and 10 in New Zealand.
Cervus said the six dealerships that made up the new entity had in the past three years achieved an average annual revenue of about $67 million but the budgeted turnover figure this financial year is about $75 million for the combined group.
Canadian equipment supplier Cervus Equipment, with ten dealerships across Victoria, was the subject of a takeover by fellow Canadian company Brandt Tractor, part of Brandt Industries.
Brandt has acquired all the issued and outstanding common shares of Cervus, excluding those held by Brandt, for $19.50 per share in cash, valuing Cervus at approximately $302 million on an equity value basis.
From a humble service station to a massive multi-national business - Colin Stubbs has been on an amazing ride.
He has a lot of clients that have become firm friends over the years, which speaks volumes about the integrity of the person he is.
Congratulations Colin on 50 great years of service.