This month the Baker Tilly Staples Rodway Tauranga office celebrated its 75th anniversary. Director John Donald has been with the firm for 53 years and director Neville Grey for 49 – almost as long as they’ve been married, they joke. They talk about what’s changed and what hasn’t.
The era was the early 1970s. The days were long and the office hazy as collared men in ties puffed on cigarettes and calculated figures with nothing but pencils and razor-sharp minds. Very different from the offices and systems of today.
“We used to do budgets and cashflow statements on multi-column paper by hand,” says John. “So if you did a budget for several years and changed one thing, you had to rub it all out and change it right through.”
John joined the firm in 1969 when Tauranga was a township of about 30,000. If you walked down the main street, you’d likely know a lot of people, he says
Their original Grey St premises had a concrete-lined “strong room” for documents, with a heavy safe door, says Neville. “But they used to say we didn’t need security because Len was here until midnight every night – and Tom (who lived up the road) used to walk down and start working at 2-3 am in the morning.”
They provided many of the services still on offer: Accounting, financial advice, trust advice, succession planning, and more. The years also brought flexibility around the likes of break times, hours worked, and working from home, along with a cultural shift to a “work-life balance”.
These days John and Neville have second- and third-generation clients, and they’ve enjoyed watching those families and businesses grow. The firm’s family-like environment is important to staff and many have been in its employ since leaving school many years ago.
The team is ably run by directors Chris Downey, Brent Rogers, John Donald, Shirley Seales, Neville Grey, Lisa Stirling, Mark Robinson, Ian Renner, Fiona Welten and Sybrand van Schalkwyk, and together the wider office is looking forward to the next 75 years of service
Happy 75th Birthday to the team at Baker Tilly Staples Rodway. If you would like to read more visit their website.
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