The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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Pelorus Sound���s Johnson���s Barge Service are WINNERS n 1919, Eric Johnson decided burgeoning communities in Pelorus Sound needed his services and he started transporting passengers around the Sounds, later taking their mail as well. Based at Havelock, nearly 100 years later grandson Peter Johnson and his wife Jennie are still meeting the needs of their community, providing barging services for aquaculture, forestry agriculture, and other successful businesses in the Sounds. Johnson���s Barge Service is a vital component of Pelorus Sound life. The ���rm���s work includes transporting logs from forestry blocks to port, stock from d���Urville Island, and carrying ���sh and feed for New Zealand King Salmon farms. Life has changed from when Jennie Johnson joined the family, 30 years ago.Then, the mussel industry was ���ourishing and Johnson���s were laying mussel lines and moving the product to port. Eventually, the industry grew to a point where mussel companies began to own their own vessels. Then a moratorium on aquaculture meant no new lines were required. Jennie says they have been careful to spread their risk and not rely on just one industry, ���For instance, if we were just logging-based during the recession, we would have gone out of business, because there were no logs.��� To help maintain diversity in their business the Johnson���s install and maintain moorings, price fairly despite a lack of competition, maintain other contracts such as the removal of sewage from Abel Tasman National Park, and always keep their eyes and ears open for the next opportunity. ���You have to keep looking ahead and trying to place yourself so you���re ready to capture these things as they come up.��� They have a motorised barge they built and launched in 2000, the steel non-propelled barge Hinau and their classic kauri tug Tawhai powered by twin 2x6LXB Gardners that Eric designed in 1966 to pull the logging Hinau. ���Although Tawhai is nearly as old as I am, we would struggle to ���nd a vessel in New Zealand that could do the job she does as well as her.��� A few years ago, they began the process of dragging the company into modern times by updating their brand and their website, and in 2012 they entered the Westpac Marlborough Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards, ���to step back and take a good look at what we���re doing, to analyse our business and learn from others���. I Concrete Trucks at Rimu Bay, Pelorus Sound 6 ��� NZ AQUACULTURE ��� JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 Jennie and the Johnson���s Barge family, third place winners in the Supreme Business awards category, of the Westpac Marlborough Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards, 2012 MV Pukatea at the salmon farm August, 2012 Lochmara Lodge Wildlife Recovery and Arts Centre in the Queen Charlotte Sound won Supreme award in November with Picton Village Bakkerij second. But Johnson���s Barge Service were third equal with Pirtek Marlborough in the Supreme category, not a bad effort for a barge service. They also came second in the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Investing in People and Skills Award (with Picton Village Bakkerij ���rst), and were second to N-Viro Group for the pcMedia Technologies Innovation Award. Even in such illustrious company Johnson���s Barge Service shone on the night. In announcing the awards, Marlborough District Council environment committee chairman Peter Jerram told the gala dinner audience of almost 300, that if we don���t sustain the resources that underpin our economy, there will be no economy. Mr Jerram said the awards dinner was an appropriate forum to push the message of environmental sustainability, given that, ���The Chamber of Commerce is more about economic growth.��� He also said, ���Everyone wants economic development; it���s the cornerstone of our prosperity and societal aspirations. However, it was important to ensure that growth was sustainable.��� ���I hope there will be a day when this award is unnecessary because everyone will have discovered that environmentally sustainable practices are critical to the maintenance of business.��� A lesson Johnson���s Barge Services have shown they can put into practice in their business.