Tired of watching her colleagues waste time and money on unhealthy snacks during breaks, Amanda Hodgson took matters into her own hands.
With a deep-rooted understanding of the importance of a well-fed team, stemming from her background in sheep and beef farming, she launched an initiative to ensure her entire crew enjoyed quality smoko and lunch every single day by preparing their meals.
“It doesn’t matter where they are working in the country, they’re on site by 7am, and the boys would go to the bakery and expect a pie and a doughnut to last them all day,” Amanda says.
“But that’s not enough. It’s super important they’re fed well to go the distance, so we started feeding them and now we have a full time cook in the team too.”
They have vegetable gardens on site and at home on their local lifestyle block, and they get a beef animal processed every six months.
Amanda and her husband Matt own and operate Archway Group based in Matamata. They make concrete panels for rural infrastructure, predominantly for effluent systems or silage bunkers.
They have cultivated a work culture centered on efficiency, communication and continuous improvement.
Embracing the philosophy that “simple systems attract great people”, they have developed streamlined processes and fostered a tight-knit team dynamic.
About a decade ago, they participated in a local business group that hosted an intensive team day.
Amanda recalls how they interviewed a diverse range of people related to the business, including customers, suppliers and staff.
“Our customers and suppliers were happy as,” Amanda says.
“But our staff had some valuable feedback.
“They expressed their admiration for Matt and I, but when they arrived on-site, they felt lost and out of the loop with no plans, no pack lists and just were expected to know what we are thinking.
“That feedback was a wake-up call for us – a catalyst for change.”
This realisation prompted Amanda and Matt to re-evaluate their approach and implement systems and processes to ensure clarity and cohesion among their team.
“We don’t get it right all the time, that’s for sure, but our staff have been around for a while so sometimes it is the small things that count to create a great team culture.
“And it’s never finished – better never stops.”
The efficiencies made a huge difference to their workflow. Jobs that historically took up to 10 weeks to complete are now taking only a few days.
They engage regularly with a business consultant, Jimmy Conway from Free Flow Partners.
“Jimmy started us on our journey of systems and organisation and now we work with him at least monthly.
“We’ve had people try to tell us we should have a formal board to support our business since it has grown but we like how things work, we are agile and can adapt easily when things need to adjust and change.”
Amanda grew up on a sheep and beef station in the Mahi Peninsula. Her family have been on the same farm for 130 years and her brother and his wife are now running it. She was the youngest of three children and when she went to university she wanted to do something different to her siblings.
“My brother did an agriculture degree at Lincoln and my sister did ag at Massey so I tried to do something different which ended up being environmental science at Otago University.”
After university she went shepherding for 12 months before landing a role at Horizons Regional Council, based in Taumaranui.
“I was involved in the Sustainable Land Use initiative, helping hill country farmers planting and looking after water quality.
“I had good insight coming from the hill country myself and learning about sustainability.”
She met Matt when she was looking at going overseas, but she had a few friends coming back due to the global financial crisis, unable to get jobs, so she decided to stay put.
After Horizons she moved into an area manager role with Fonterra and then onto ASB as a rural banking associate.
Matt had been a builder the whole way through before they set up Archway Group together just over a decade ago.
“It’s been a great way to use our combined knowledge and skill sets, and we enjoy supporting farmers a lot.”
Another way Amanda supports farmers is through the Dairy Expo, with the inaugural event happening in Matamata in February. The idea evolved from the former Effluent Expo run by Waikato Regional Council pre-covid.
“The Effluent Expo was to support farmers when there was a lot of change in the effluent space, but since the focus has shifted we could see an opportunity for a broader event.
“There are a lot of technologies and other resources farmers are using so we graduated from the effluent expo to the dairy expo and hosted it at the Matamata rugby grounds.”
Amanda is the driving force behind the event. They had over 90 exhibitors and about 1300 farmers through the gates over two days. It received great feedback.
When she is not busy keeping the workshop and team in order or organising industry events, Amanda loves to get out on her horse on the hunt field. She is also a keen runner and likes keeping fit and busy.
Matt likes fishing and they enjoy time with their kids, Annabelle, 11 and Jasper, 8. They are both passionate about preserving the value of local business and being deeply connected to their community, prioritising people over profits.
This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.
