Kiwi Business Story: Matt Dixon from Nicholls & Maher

Matt Dixon from Nicholls & Maher is a Owner Manager Programme 46 cohort alumni.

This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 19 November 2021, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.

Can you explain your business and your journey of becoming a business owner? 

My father bought Nicholls & Maher in the early 80s. It is a supply chain business, we import from countries, such as Europe, China, America, South America, in a range of products and consumables. Such as hygiene, food packaging, and gloves.  Also, construction materials, between plywood and fibreglass for companies, boat builders and house building as well. I stepped away from the business after university, went to London for five years and came back when finally, a job opened around sales and marketing. I spent about two years establishing good relationships with my clients throughout New Zealand and then an opportunity arose to buy one of our biggest clients and our general manager moved into another role. I stepped into his shoes.

Is there any advice or maybe a heads up you would have given your past self in terms of business ownership? 

When I started in this role, keeping my customers happy was so important to me and the fact that I would drop margins just to keep them, I wanted to keep them on the books. Over time, I realised that when you partner with the client, you are an extension of them. These clients that show no loyalty throughout, after two or three years, they just chop and change on the regular, so they are not worth keeping. I was needing to constantly sacrifice margins, and I have become more adept to letting clients go now if they are going to chop and change, there is no point doing it for free. That's sort of something that I have learned the hard way.

How did you hear about The Icehouse 

BNZ approached me about The Icehouse programme when we were purchasing this new company. I was stepping into a senior role from more of a junior role. I needed some tools and some learning experiences around running a business, the size we had, and then also looking to put some processes in place to run it more effectively, both then and at some point, in the future.

What's one thing that's really stuck with you from your Owner Manager Programme experience?

A lot of the issues I was having were around my staff, and what really resonated with me, were that a lot of the other people on my course were having similar issues. Your personnel are key, and they need to be able to come on this journey with you.  If you have got someone that is just working nine to five, doing the bare minimum, it is going to have a negative impact on your business culture and your overall business. It will have a lead on effect to anyone else you bring in. Listening to what other people were saying about that, and what they did in terms of moving them on and bringing in new people that got on board with them taking on the culture and the values, and how much it really improved the company really stuck with me.

So that is something that I have implemented. And we have got rid of people that have been there a long time, but they were stuck in the same old routine. Even though you try to get them on board with you, they just were not interested. So, we brought in some new blood, who are young and keen to get involved and jump on this new journey with me. 

Is there anything that you that you've implemented, from a lifestyle perspective that you've changed since OMP? 

 Relax more, things happen outside of your control, so just roll with it, try and find a solution, and don’t dwell on the problem. With what is going on in the world today, things happen outside of your control and just to get on with it and find a solution.