Darren Richardson (left) and Ben Haddock. If you’re going to do it, do it the best you can, and build a business the community can be proud of.

”It was a case of either taking on the challenge, or looking for a new job and starting again,” said Darren Richardson as he answers the ‘Where did it all begin?’ question.

Darren and Ben Haddock were working for Colin Thompson Contracting in Greymouth when Colin raised the prospect of the two lads in their mid-20s buying in. He was tiring of the ever-increasing compliance burden, deciding he needed someone else to manage this or he was ready to call it a day and do other things.

Ben was born into the game via family business Equipment Services. His dad Peter Haddock was a goldminer, contractor and general do-anything engineer, who had been instrumental in a number of key civil projects around the town – flood protection in the CBD being one. Even today, at 70, he serves as chair of the West Coast Regional Council.

Darren also came from a local business; his dad Ken Richardson was a local plumber. Darren, however, decided pipes weren’t the dream and embarked on a different path, first working in forestry after leaving school, then for local contractor Murray Wilkins as a labourer. From there, he found his way into trucks and machinery for Colin Thompson Contracting, followed by a stint in Christchurch at Works Infrastructure (Downers) under Alan Stanton and Gary Ikin. Then came the fateful move back home to the west coast and Colin Thompson’s business again.

Having taken the leap of faith on Colin’s prompting in 2005, the three soon approached Murray Wilkins about the prospect of amalgamating the two companies to form MBD. Murray Wilkins Contracting had Hi-rail diggers working for KiwiRail, a niche the lads identified as desirable. Now in his mid-40s, Murray, too, was beginning to succumb to the rising tide of compliance obligations, and so everyone shook hands and MBD (Murray, Ben, Darren) Contracting was born in 2007. “In case you’re wondering, we decided the ‘C’ in Contracting was Colin,” says Ben with a laugh.

The business knew what it wanted to target, taking on the bigger jobs generally, embracing the modern compliance environment as simply a part of doing business in the 21st century. They also wanted a focus on quality, cleanliness, and presentation. Murray’s wife Fiona Wilkins did the administration in their own business and came into the MBD office from the get-go with the formidable IP people like her always have. That proved invaluable.

“It’s cool building things that last, significant stuff you know will benefit the wider community for a long time,” says Darren. “You can stand back and say ‘we built that’, and be proud of it.

“We work all the way down the coast and we try to use locals in the areas we are in. Putting money back into those communities. Even accommodation, meals, and the services, we try to support local wherever we are.”

In the succeeding 17 years since the events of 2007, Darren and Ben have taken the full shareholding, Murray and Colin retiring from the business in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The most striking thing about the whole MBD brand is the level of presentation, cleanliness, sense of organisation and the mood. You’ll visit 100 businesses and may strike three that present themselves at the level of MBD. It’s an alchemy often sought and rarely found.

You’ll recall Cozzy said the place is like going to work with a bunch of mates. Staff turnover is minimal, with Darren saying any attrition is largely due to people moving away, or bettering themselves career-wise – into positions MBD is unable to offer.

“I can’t think of the last time we lost someone to the opposition for reasons of purely conditions etc. We never begrudge anyone moving on to take up the opportunity for personal growth. We can’t be everything to everyone. And we still have a large percentage of the staff who were here when we started.

“We’ve taken graduates from the local polytech but make sure they’ve attended for the right reasons. We want people who love and want to operate machines.”

In the end, it comes down to the age-old thing of people being drawn to purpose, direction, order and the real clincher, leadership … especially from the front! All of us seek to be part of something worthwhile.

Ben laughs. “The fastidious order and cleanliness thing, that’s Darren. That’s definitely Darren.”

“Oh well,” says Darren with a grin. “Keeping it tidy, it’s a great way to be, isn’t it?”

Walking out, I turn and look back at the spotless yard, shed and office complex. There are huge rocks at the gate … but they’re not the hollow decorative kind, they’re the five- tonne decorative kind. Everything about this place is real, solid and grounded.

“Hmm? Build it and they will come. Lead and they will follow.”

MBD – it’s been a magnificent lesson. The oldest payloads and the oldest principles.