Experience in Britain

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 43

Experience in Britain

Spacecom has a background of experience with modular units for instant accommodation in Great Britain.

Mr John Harwood, a director of the Christchurchbased company, owned a construction company. He was involved in building and designing modular units for various sites, but particularly for onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration companies. Instant accommodation units, such as Portapac which is now available here, are utilised to a large extent in Great Britain.

The idea to set up Spacecom in Christchurch developed after a holiday in New Zealand. Mr Harwood sold his construction business and came here last year after spending a year working on renovating a rectory he had purchased in England. “I had always heard a lot about New Zealand and felt it might be a fairly nice

place to settle,” he said. “I decided to come out here and do a bit of backpacking and explore the place. I investigated the possibilities in the business area. This involved talking to several people in Christchurch.

“Afterwards I weighed up the different possibilities and really thought I preferred to live in Christchurch,” Mr Harwood explained. One of the people he met was Mr Gary McVicar, of the McVicar Timber Group. “I kept in touch with the McVicar organisation and came out here to work for them in January this year.” Mr Harwood and McVicars started looking into suitable areas for diversification.

They planned and shaped the design for the Portapac units and decided to go ahead and begin construction. Meanwhile, Spacecom hopes to set up a factory at Hornby and is looking at a future of export sales. “It seems to me there is a lot of potential in the Pacific area where countries are developing,” Mr Harwood said. He hopes he will be able to repay the support he had from the New Zealand High Commission when he decided to come to this country. “They had a lot of faith in me. I hope I can do something towards repaying that faith by creating employment through this company,” he said.