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from the Fletcher archives
An Inestimable Contribution
The centenary celebrations this year have had Senior Estimator Stuart Rattenbury reminiscing about his 42 years with Fletcher.
He joined the company straight out of school aged 16 as a QS cadet. A year earlier, his father encouraged him to apply for the QS cadet position after seeing an advert in the newspaper, saying ‘I think that’s going to be a very big company one day, it would probably be worthwhile going and having an interview.’ Unfortunately Stuart missed out on the job. It went to now Commercial Manager Ivan Vuksich. Undeterred, Stuart applied again the following year and was taken on.
In his time with the company, he has worked with many an interesting character. “There were a whole lot of characters. Some of them were rogues, but I guess they were [really] just strong, forceful personalities.� More importantly for Stuart, he was lucky enough to work under some legends in the business. “My first manager here was George Bourke. It took me a long while to realise it [but] I had, by sheer dumb luck, latched onto the best in the business straight-off. He just naturally related to people, whether it was one of his top contract managers or the tea lady. His influence just cascades down through the years. I also have a lot of time for Roger Power. At my long service function a couple of years ago, I paid tribute to Roger [who was retiring at the time]. I said ‘Some people you describe as the fountain of all knowledge; he was the fountain of all wisdom’. He is just such a wise, sage character.�
Stuart also had the pleasure of meeting Sir James I who he describes as a dear old Scots gentleman that “still had a spark of mischief in his eye – the way he created the company, he took enormous risks and did it with huge flair.�
Calculators were not around and computers were a mere fantasy when fresh-faced Stuart started on the job. “It was all brainpower. A lot of the stuff we did – taking quantities off drawings for pricing and so on – was [a] very good grounding.�
He has worked on some of the company’s – and the country’s – largest and most significant projects. “When I started we were probably halfway through the original Auckland Hospital project. That was just a huge, huge project and complex, and I don’t think anybody had been involved with anything like that before.� He was also involved with the Sky City project which, for the period of construction, had the whole country watching. “You’re lucky if you get one like that in your lifetime. It was an unbelievable project – the interest that it generated.� He would have friends intrigued with the project’s progress phoning him up from their offices nearby the site, asking him to explain just how it was being done.
Stuart’s son followed him into the same line of business, and company. Andrew Rattenbury has been with Fletcher for 10 years this year. Like his father, he joined straight out of school under the cadet programme choosing to avoid the ties of a student loan. Although Stuart takes it as a compliment that Andrew has followed him into the same line of work, he encourages him to put his own slant on things. “He’s gone in different directions – he’s more involved in project management; he’s looking after a few jobs, getting a broader, wider picture of the thing. He’s his own man; he’ll go his own way.�