INDUSTRY PEOPLE
IN AND OUT OF
THE HOT SEAT
The Geemac Story
Jan McKendry recounts a night where, long ago,
husband Gordon was overseas sourcing stock. She had
their two small children with her, it was very late and
an order needed to go on the courier, stat. She found
herself driving, kids in the back with the parts, to get
them to the courier depot in time for departure to the
client.
Their daughter recalls answering the home phone in
later years. The caller would ask for the parts division
and she’d hand it to Gordon, or they’d ask for accounts,
and she’d hand it to Jan.
Such was a typical scenario in the early days of Geemac
Trading (NZ) as it was then known (it’s now Geemac
Trading (NZ) Ltd). It’s a very small family business that
has grown sizably over its now-30 years.
It began in 1989.
Gordon McKendry had come from a background of
transport, when an opportunity came up to supply
heaters for buses.
He’s an energetic Kiwi bloke, friendly and personable.
He’s recently become a grandfather, and he does
“completely doting” like a pro.
Did he just wake up one morning and suddenly crave a
career in bus heating?
“It wasn’t really like that,” he laughs. “It was that an
opportunity for Jan and I emerged and there wasn’t a
lot of competition in that area at the time, and we just
thought we’d go for it.
“We were at a stage where I wanted a change, we
wanted to really grab something we could make a go of,
and we wanted to work for ourselves.”
They began distributing Aurora bus heating and
demisting systems.
Gordon supplies a range of high-quality seats for drivers of buses,
trains and other heavy equipment. It’s seating on a higher level...
The German-manufactured Aurora heating systems had
an interesting start, too.
Back in the early 1900s in Leipzig, Konrad G. Shultz
fitted a small water heater into a Ford Model-A. The
potential thereafter was realised and the company began
to supply heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAC)
systems for buses, trains and other heavy equipment.
Working from home initially, the McKendrys found the
increased demand for parts grew to the stage of needing
larger warehousing. The business took off quickly, and
the importation of European parts and systems appealed
to their client-base.
This is a monthly series on businesses in our industry. We profile one business per month to find out how our hard-working
business owners, employees and contractors manage to run these specialist businesses and what makes them tick in the
New Zealand trade business environment. These are the stories of our CAM people.
w w w. c a m m a g a z i n e . c o . n z
CAM April 2019
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