It was 1975 when Hugh O’Sullivan began milling and selling timber from his farm in Southern Hawke’s Bay. Soon after, he saw an opportunity and headed to Dannevirke to set up a lumber yard.
Today, Tumu has grown to hold business interests in multiple sectors across New Zealand, that growth powered by strong family values, long-term vision and entrepreneurial spirit.
And we’ll continue to grow the Tumu family of businesses and diversify for good reasons, giving back in meaningful ways and making decisions that are good for the future of the business and everyone it touches.
After growing a passion for the timber industry during the felling of trees on his property at Umutaroa, Hugh O’Sullivan realises a dream by setting up a lumber yard at Mangatera, Dannevirke.
He names it Tumu Timbers with the motto: ‘Our goal – to supply quality timber the way you want.’
John O’Sullivan joins his father at Tumu, marking the start of the then 17-year-old school leaver’s lifetime journey of growing the family business.
Hugh and John purchase land at Maraekakaho Road and set up Tumu Timbers in Hastings. What began as a 1.0ha operation, today covers over 9.0ha of land at the same site.
We purchase our first building supplies store in Dannevirke. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s we would open more stores in Hastings, Havelock North, Masterton, Napier and Gisborne.
We become a shareholder in Kiwi Lumber and a sawmill in Dannevirke is purchased. Three more would be added to the holdings, Putaruru (1998), Masterton (2004), and Gisborne (2020). Dannevirke, Putaruru, and Gisborne are all prune log sawmills, while Masterton produces structural timber.
Together with two management partners, we buy a small roundwood operation in Reporoa, and rebrand it PermaPine. It is now New Zealand’s leading manufacturer of posts and poles predominantly supplying into the pastoral, horticulture, viticulture, and construction sectors.
In the late seventies we began building pole sheds for the rural sector, later adding commercial and industrial buildings to our offering. Our innovative approach using LVL timber to increase the span of the sheds, was highly sought after, and in 2009 we created the TimberSpan brand.
Killarney Capital entered the market as one of the new breed of privately owned non-bank, non-deposit-taking property funders filling the void left by the finance company collapses of the Global Financial Crisis.
Investing in a greenfield residential development in Havelock North. Now operating under the Tumu Property brand, the group has a dedicated team and gained significant experience in procuring and delivering residential, commercial and industrial land and construction projects.
Our first foray into lifestyle living development is the construction of a unit titled village in Hastings. Frimley Village offers over 55 year olds, a range of 66-unit titled villas, along with a shared communal facility and an on-site manager.
Together with a joint-venture partner we purchase a 34-acre greenfield site in Greytown, Wairarapa. Greytown Orchards is to become a premium retirement village complete with 180 villas and a communal facility.
With the purchase of New Zealand Brick and Stone, we solidify our position as in importer and wholesale distributor of building materials.
After 45 years of involvement in the building supplies sector, we divest ownership of our six building supply stores, and one frame and truss plant, to Fletcher Distribution.
The award was presented at the Entrepreneur of the Year awards and recognizes entrepreneurs who lead successful, multigenerational family enterprises with unique attributes such as resilience, strong values, long-term vision, and entrepreneurial spirit.
The first stage of the 35-villa Peakviews Lifestyle Village in Hawke’s Bay gets underway, and in the Irongate industrial area in Hastings, we begin work on a purpose-built facility for TimberSpan to house product and their state-of-the-art robot drive machine.
Eyeing an opportunity to provide a fresh alternative in finance, we launch Welcome, a surprisingly human approach to term deposits and mortgage lending.
The O’Sullivan family was proud recipients of the 2023 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Family Enterprise Award of Excellence, which recognises successful, multigenerational family enterprises with resilience, strong values, long-term vision, and entrepreneurial spirit.
If you would like to learn more about Tumu, or you have a media enquiry, please get in touch.
Address:
1/24 Porter Drive
Havelock North
Hastings 4130
Postal Address:
PO Box 2308
Hastings 4156
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