‘A building dynasty’: how one family navigated the construction industry from the 1940s until today

Mike Thom’s family has a long history in the construction industry in New Zealand.

His father is an undisputed veteran of the trade: now 93, he worked as a builder for 63 years, finally retiring at the ripe age of 76. His passion for construction was either contagious or hereditary, it seems – both Mike and his brother joined their father in the profession as teenagers, and have both had decades of experience themselves.

Mike’s family life growing up revolved around building – so by the time he became a teenager, he was almost as familiar with the toolbelt as his dad. In some ways, it’s all he’s ever known.

“I’ve been building since I was 16 years old – I’m 56 now,” says Mike. “I’ve found that if it’s in your family, if it runs in your blood, then it’s hard not to go down that path. I’m glad I did, though – the long history of being in the game really comes in handy.”

He began his career with an apprenticeship under a family friend – also a builder. Mike explains why he didn’t train directly under his father: “My older brother did an apprenticeship with my dad, but that didn’t work out – too close to home, I think,” he says with a laugh. “So we thought it best if I did my apprenticeship with a non-blood relative – and it turned out great.”

After completing his apprenticeship, he began working for his dad’s building company in earnest for a few years, building his knowledge and honing his experience. Then came the financial crash of 1987, and with it the prospect of some seriously hard fiscal times for the company – along with some difficult conversations.

“Dad had 14 guys on his payroll, who he tried really hard to keep on,” Mike says. “He ended up buying a lot of work just to keep the guys employed. But the debts kept piling up and eventually seven of us were laid-off.”

Mike stayed on for a year or so to help reduce the debt. After that, his dad lent him some money to pick himself up, and told Mike that this might be his opportunity to go off on his own and make a name for himself. So that’s what he did – but it took him a while to get his feet off the ground.

“When you start out on your own, it takes a long time and hard work to get your name out there,” Mike says. “But one thing hasn’t changed, even from the 1990s – it’s all about who you know.”

Once Mike realised this, he got to work: in his spare time in the past, he used to race cars – so he got in touch with the people he knew through that hobby. “People who race cars seemed to have quite a bit of money, and word of mouth is the best form of advertising in this industry.”

It was around this time, in the early 1990s, when Mike started finding more work, that he started his own company: MR Thom Builders, which he still operates to this day. But even though Mike had moved on and created his own business, there were still elements of familial collaboration. For example, his older brother, who had worked at his father’s business, ended up working under Mike at MR Thom Builders.

Meanwhile, he kept close professional contact with his dad’s company, Thom Brothers – if a job was too big for them, Mike and his team would take it on.

This is largely how business remained for the next two decades or so. But then, in the early 2010s, Mike got some particularly life-altering news.

“About 12 years ago, I got diagnosed with a particular condition that affected my legs,” says Mike. “The doctor told me that if left untreated, it could leave me in a wheelchair, paralysed from my neck down. So we did the operation, and thankfully I’m not in the wheelchair – but I can’t run or walk without a limp anymore.

“So I decided I needed to put down the tools. That year, I was in recovery mode for six months, but that didn’t mean I was idle. I started to run the books and manage the jobs, organising the subcontractors and materials.”

Mike let his guys do the heavy lifting while he managed behind the scenes – and oddly enough, he says, it was MR Thom’s best year ever.

“I found that I don’t always need to be on site to run things, it’s all about delegation. And especially with all the red tape and hoops you need to jump through with regulations, council consents, that sort of thing – someone needs to be behind the scenes taking care of all that.”

This was yet another learning curve Mike went through in his decades-long career in building – but it doesn’t compare with all of the tips he picked up growing up in a family so entrenched in the construction industry.

“It’s all I’ve ever known,” Mike says. “It’s all I’ve ever done, all my brother’s done, all my dad’s done. And the best part of it is that I can rely on them – if something comes up that I’m not familiar with, or I’m not sure how to proceed, I’ll give dad a call and he’ll talk me through it.

“With him building for 60-something years, there’s not much he hasn’t seen – and that’s really valuable.”

And with Mike nearing 40 years in the industry, it seems he’s hot on his fathers’ heels.