Firm going strong in electrical services

EMMA BAILEY

MYTCHALL BRANSGROVE/ Fairfax NZ

ELECTRIFIED: Des, left, with Jim Spillane (with Callum McDonald working in the background) at Sullivan and Spillane.

The business ushered in the age of colour televisions with a waiting list to buy the then modern gadgets - decades later the market is flooded with TVs and the consumer flooded with large retailers to buy them from.

Business reporter Emma Bailey talks to Jim Spillane about Sullivan and Spillane, the electrical business which went back to basics allowing it to survive 40 years.

How did the business start?

Peter Spillane and I worked for Temuka Electrical Services but it was brought by the South Canterbury Power Board in 1972 so we set up Sullivan and Spillane Electrical in Temuka.

We started with two staff but quickly grew to eight as there was a bit of a local boom in Temuka, with building and also farmers still getting subsidies, it was a fools' paradise, really. We started doing a lot of (electrical work on) dairy sheds and irrigation too, the dairy boom was just stirring and lot of farmers were setting up irrigation, it was in its embryonic stage.

We were also doing the (electrical) work for three wool scours, two flour mills and the linen flax mill near Geraldine. They no longer exist.

We went into retailing and had a store in Timaru, Temuka and Pleasant Point and at the peak had 40 staff. We were selling colour TVs and had waiting lists for them as well as automatic washing machines.

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Firm going strong in electrical services