On the 31 August CWCWC hosted an event with independent economist Cameron Bagrie.

Bagrie gave a comprehensive review of the current issues facing the global economy - inflation, rising costs of living, a shift to onshore manufacturing, divisions between nations and government spending blowouts. Bagrie is of the view that our decline in economic activity is a“reset” not a recession. He spoke of the need to create solutions to the problems and that businesses will need to take real risks to make real money. For businesses to be successful in the future they will need to focus on quantitative facts.

Bagrie went on to say that Climate Change is real and it is everyone’s responsibility. This is where those in the forestry and wood processing sector can make a difference.

The CWCWC members that came along to listen said that they received valuable information and would like the opportunity to hear from Bagrie again post-elections.

Q What Made You Start?
A An interest in trucks. Starting my driving career while doing a mechanics apprenticeship fixing them. I thought I’d rather be in them than under them.

My first driving job taught me some good basic skills and when a local sawmill advertised for a log truck driver I thought to give it a go, it was handy to home and the mill only had two trucks and I thought I would enjoy the challenge.

That mill was Waimak Sawmills. A family owned business who we have maintained a relationship with for over fifty years and still occupy some of the original mill site today. I soon realised that sawmillers are better at cutting timber than truck ownership and while the trucks were important they were pretty crude and it was up to your own ingenuity to make the best of things, working alone, long hours and the equipment of the time soon honed your skills and desire not get hurt every day.

I was twenty when I started. I really loved the work and progressed my driving of trucks and machines with several small businesses from 1969 until I bought my first truck in 1978 prior to establishing SML in 1980/81 contracted to Odlins. The rest is history as they say.

Q What are your greatest achievements?
A Surviving over fifty years in an evolving industry and world particularly in the last twenty years as expectations on business owners have increased significantly.

Without exception my wife, son Chris, and daughter Rebecca, have been on the same journey, luckily we all share the same outlook and sense of humour which has kept us grounded enough to take it how it comes in keeping the Murphy family together in business and in life. If you put more in than you take out I’ve found it makes you appreciate what you have and the respect of your peers.

Q What is your role now?
A My son Chris now owns the family business and my allocated role is SML Brand Ambassador. I am passionate about our company and sector and its great to be able to not be too PC and specific on issues but try to give thoughtful insights at times when needed. As we have a habit of repeating ourselves at times in business while not forwarding unsolicited advice, when there are two leaders there is no leader.

I will continue to promote our brand within our sector and support our local industry whenever needed and role fill as the company needs.
I have always enjoyed the challenges of projects and still do so Chris enables me to fluff about the place restoring classic- trucks fixing up old machines and generally keeping engaged.

Q What are SML's future plans? 
A SML is established as the regions primary logistics and transport service. Canterbury being home base but always looking for opportunity to maintain sensible business through put to enable service level consistency. We have a great rapport with other regions operators and network to ensure resources are balanced and industry issues/pressures shared. SML will continue to be a big part of the Canterbury forestry sector supporting and evolving with customers, resource and markets under Chris’s leadership and his commitment to our industry at a national level.

I am proud of our achievements and will continue to support the business in my role as Ambassador, driver, or whatever the job may be on the day while still having time out with Jill and the family.

Introducing International Primary Products (NZ) Ltd., formed in 2009, we are primarily export log traders operating in New Zealand and Australia.

We secure our log supply primarily as “delivered logs” at either our Auckland or Christchurch log yards purchasing the logs off numerous forest owners and harvesting/marketing managers nationwide. As well we can buy logs and ship these ex the main NZ ports also from time to time.

Our point of difference is that for the most part we ship using 40’ shipping containers and this allows us to ship smaller parcels more frequently to almost any destination in the world.

We have been active in Auckland for over 13 years and opened our Christchurch yard in October 2022.

It’s been a relatively hard start up in Christchurch due to an incredibly weak China market and the introduction in Jan-23 of compulsory recapture for all methyl bromide fumigations adding significant cost to our business relative to bulk shippers who are fortunate enough to use Phosphine for in ships hold fumigations at a much lower cost.

To help offset this cost hike we recently installed a debarker into our Woolston yard and this will become operational from mid-August 2023 onwards and will therefore allow us to dramatically reduce the proportion of our logs that require fumigation and allow us to also become more competitive again.

12 October 2023 - Mike King speaking at Resilience Breakfast

14 November 2023 - Burnside High School Junior Careers Day

23 November 2023, 4.30pm – CWCWC End of Year Social

2 August 2024, 5.30pm - CWCWC Awards Night