Landpro has gone from a little 2-person office in Cromwell to a team of over 70, with some of the best tech in the country, managing complex projects nationwide. As the company turns 15, their staff are looking back on the company’s growth, milestones, and the stories along the way.
Founders Kath and Kate had worked together before and saw a huge opportunity back in 2007 to provide planning and surveying services to the Otago and Southland regions. It may well have been the Bannockburn pinots and crisp blue lakes that sold them on the location in Cromwell, but their story is it was the perfect spot to access the whole region, and they’re sticking to it! They started out as a sister office to BTW, called BTW South.
Within the first 12 months of business, they’d outgrown that first little office, with a graduate Surveyor and a Planner coming on board. The wave of growth continued at a pretty steady rate year on year until Mike came on board as Shareholder & Director in 2012, and they outgrew the second office to end up at their current spot on Pinot Noir Drive (yeah, the pinots had to have something to do with it!).
Since then, Landpro has reached countless milestones – here are just some of the highlights according to the team:
- 2013: Recognition – The first major milestone in terms of business recognition within the community, winning the Central Otago Business Excellence Awards.
- 2014: Going aerial - Buying their very first drone, which enabled them to branch into the aerial surveying space - allowing a huge expansion of services.
- 2017: Growing up - finally big enough to bring on their very own CEO!
- 2018: Sylvie joins the team – Entering the big kids club, with the first plane. A Cessna 337 Skymaster, named Sylvie for her tail number ZK-SVY.
- 2018: winning the Otago Chamber of Commerce Primary Industry Excellence Awards
- 2021: their biggest growth spurt yet – adding a massive 17 people to the team
We talked to founders Kath and Kate about their favourite memories along the way.
Kath: “I remember this one funny moment looking back to the start of our business. We were going to a meeting with our potential new banker, and Kate and I were both pregnant, and we’re going - do we both admit we’re pregnant right now as we ask for funding for this business?? It turned out great, he was very understanding and took a punt on us, securing a loan against these two pregnant ladies with big ideas.”
Kate: “For me, lots of our fun memories come from our annual Landpro staff weekends – they’re a highlight of every year! A ski weekend, the Amazing Race, the Landpro Olympics. One of my favourites has to be The Landies – a movie weekend where we all had to make movies about Landpro. Lots of laughs have been had across the years and it’s still that way as we continue to grow our team with the right people.”
When reflecting on their success, Kate says it’s all down to relationships. “Looking back at our first 100 jobs ever created, more than half are clients that we have ongoing relationships with or are continuing to work with now in a variety of ways”. They also place a huge importance on staff and company culture.
Celebrating success
As a team that likes to work hard, they naturally like to celebrate success as a team too! They held their 15th birthday celebration night at the Cromwell Golf Club - photos below. What a fantastic way to celebrate with the people and their partners who help create that success.
Looking to the future
Jason, CEO of Landpro says: “We’ve got some big plans coming for the future. Just this year, we’ve done some growth planning, mapping out our vision through to 2040. High on the priority list is taking care of our people, focusing on sustainability for future generations, and expanding our services and service areas.”
Tune in for more about their sustainability and growth plans at landpro.co.nz or on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
