{"id":125573,"date":"2025-11-09T02:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125573\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T02:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:15:07","slug":"christchurchs-oakleys-plumbing-celebrates-150-years-of-family-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125573\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch\u2019s Oakleys Plumbing celebrates 150 years of family legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHenry Oakley and John Taylor were the two gentlemen involved. They started out as blacksmiths, bell installers \u2013 they installed several of the major bells in Christchurch. And then general plumbing merchants in those days,\u201d says Willis. <\/p>\n

They were also gasfitters, brass founders, iron and tinplate workers and sanitary engineers.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn “award-winning pumice gas copper” from the Oakleys archives. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made car radiators for a time, you know, all sorts of things.\u201d <\/p>\n

History shows the company was reputable and, according to the Oakleys website, \u201cwas people-orientated with regular picnics for the staff and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PicnicsPicnics for staff and family were a regular feature at Oakleys Plumbing in the early 1900s. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Oakley and Taylor parted ways in 1919 \u2013 the business was renamed Oakley & Sons. <\/p>\n

Willis\u2019 history with the company is much more recent by comparison \u2013 but equally rich. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been there [since] … I\u2019ve got to be honest, I really can\u2019t remember \u2013 but I think 1995. Prior to that, I worked for Taylor\u2019s, which owned Oakleys,\u201d says Willis. <\/p>\n

The Taylor\u2019s that Willis worked for was the legacy business of John Taylor. When Henry Oakley died in 1924, one of his 11 children took over, unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

By 1934, Osmyn Oakley had put his father\u2019s company into voluntary liquidation. <\/p>\n

At that point, John Taylor reappeared and purchased Oakleys. He ran it separately from Taylor\u2019s, which focused more on its engineering division. <\/p>\n

\" The grave of Henry Oakley at Linwood cemetery in Christchurch. Denis Willis has spent thousands of dollars on repairing the grave and headstone. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI left Taylor\u2019s to have a crack at another little company in Christchurch called WG McCrory, which was the smallest plumbing merchants in Christchurch. I worked there for four years when Tony Taylor approached me and asked if my boss at McCrory\u2019s wanted to buy Oakleys,\u201d recalls Willis.<\/p>\n

\"DenisDenis Willis of Oakleys Plumbing, which has celebrated 150 years of business in Christchurch. The company was founded in 1875. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

The pair met for a lunch that pushed well into the evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe rang me at 6am the next morning. \u2018Have you talked to your boss\u2019? I said, \u2018I don\u2019t think so, Tony. I left you late last night\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Seemingly, that was the answer that Taylor had hoped for. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had breakfast with him and he said, \u2018We\u2019ll set you up to buy it\u2019. And that\u2019s what they did.\u201d <\/p>\n

Willis had a clear plan of how he wanted to operate the business. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took the company over fully, I asked all the people who had worked with me for 10 years if they wished to become partners in the business. And they all did \u2013 and they are all partners today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis believes the model has not only boosted Oakleys\u2019 performance, but it has also helped ensure its long-term future. He describes it as the \u201cbest thing\u201d he\u2019s ever done. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you work for yourself, you\u2019ll put more into it. We opened three new branches, and each branch has its own branch manager who is at least a 25% shareholder. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took Oakleys over many, many years ago, it turned over $1.2 million, and this year we\u2019re going to crack $50m. So, it has grown. It\u2019s all down to the people, we have superb people,\u201d says Willis.<\/p>\n

\"Oakleys'Oakleys’ 150th celebrations at Christ’s College last month. Photo \/ Pavol Nekl, Juicy Lion Media<\/p>\n

Celebrating the company\u2019s 150th birthday, Willis hosted his staff and francisees at Christ\u2019s College \u2013 his old school. It had another link. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first building when I worked for Oakleys, we rented the land and the building off Christ\u2019s College, believe it or not,\u201d says Willis. <\/p>\n

Willis is preparing to step out of the business.<\/p>\n

\"DenisDenis Willis says he’s “fading out” of the company he owns, Oakleys Plumbing, which has celebrated 150 years of business in Christchurch. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stayed on in the role as managing director, but day to day I don\u2019t have a lot to do with it anymore \u2013 except that I look after the stockpile.\u201d <\/p>\n

He knows who will step in \u2013 one of the team who joined him when he first took Oakleys on.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] was a plumber with us, and he became a salesman and worked for some of our suppliers. He said to me one day \u2018Denis, I\u2019ll never work for you, but I will work with you\u2019. And he\u2019s now the person that\u2019s going to take over from me running the company,\u201d says Willis.<\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe is a senior journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHenry Oakley and John Taylor were the two gentlemen involved. They started out as blacksmiths, bell installers \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22124,138,9632,4487,50545,1656,2109,1138,194,6176,22643,1456,3259,111,139,69,87363,1118,82501,2202,766,8830,6759,1530],"class_list":["post-125573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-22124","tag-business","tag-celebrates","tag-christchurch","tag-christchurchs","tag-company","tag-family","tag-firm","tag-kiwi","tag-legacy","tag-marked","tag-mike","tag-milestone","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oakleys","tag-of","tag-plumbing","tag-remarkable","tag-reports","tag-rich","tag-thorpe","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}