New MPL owners now re-cycled locals

 

Around eight years ago Peter Fredricksen brought Materials Processing Limited (MPL) to Mangawhai. It was an extension of his Rotorua business and a welcome addition for locals with its recycling service which later extended to landscape supplies and a special brand of organic compost, now one of only a few BioGro Certified producst of its kind in New Zealand.

The winds of change have now blown Langs Beach couple Colin Paterson and Julie Monaghan into the new ownership role as of April.

Weekend warriors Colin and Julie, while not necessarily looking for a business to buy, were open to considering a more permanent move from the frantic pace of the city when they initially visited the MPL yard as customers. However an off-hand remark led to more serious conversation and a deal was done.

“In time we will put our own stamp on things but initially we want to become integrated into the community and continue giving the service and supplying the products that locals have come for and come to expect,” says Colin.

“It was a remark that we picked up on that led to us talking to (previous owners) Peter and Jan and, as we had had a weekend home at Langs for 14 years we were certainly not averse to something that took us out of the hubbub of Auckland.

Julie still commutes to Auckland three days a week in her position as commercial and marketing director of Triathlon NZ.

Colin has an engineering and sheetmetal background so is not far removed from the activities of the yard and which could graduate to garden art or other products in time. Initially though the business, which includes five part-time staff, will continue to manufacture their own brand of organic compost from green waste and supply bark, metal, chips, landscape supplies and the like while still retaining a strategic partnership with the MPL branch in Rotorua for re-cycling.

“We have lots of ideas flying around at the moment,” says Julie “but they need to be viable for us and at the same time benefit the community in terms of services and perhaps creating more jobs for locals.”

Their two boys, who attend Bream Bay College, are already well integrated into sporting activities including football and rugby plus the inevitable water sports so will be a welcome addition to the area in both the sporting and business sectors.

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CHANGE: Colin Paterson and Julie Monaghan have jumped at the chance to make a more permanent move to the area.

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