For over 37 years, Penniall Jordan has been located on Broadway in Stratford. Now the iconic business has merged with SAVVY GAS and the store is getting a makeover too.
At the start of March this year, Andrew and Narelle Wratt and partners Guy and Jenna Ormrod took over Stratford plumbing, heating and gas-fitting company, Penniall Jordan, and merged it with Savvy Gas.
Started in 2018, Savvy Gas offers the full range of plumbing and gas-fitting services, including drainlaying, home heating, heat transferring and central heating.
“The idea for Savvy Gas came up over a game of golf,” explains Andrew. ““Guy had his own full time job in project management but with more than 15 years of plumbing, gas-fitting experience he was keen to make his way back in the game. I’ve been working in the trade for over 15 years as well and was keen to take the next leap forward in my career.”
Together they came up with the idea of Savvy Gas, with Guy being the ideas man and Andrew being the man on the tools and face of the company, and it just grew from there.
Andrew spent the first two years of the business building a strong client base in New Plymouth working on renovations, new builds and maintenance. Solid networks have been developed over this time with numerous other trades ensuring customers could be provided with a seamless service for all the associated aspects of any home renovation or build.
The Penniall Jordan acquisition gives the company the opportunity to show customers the various types of home heating they can offer, as well as options for bathroom fitouts and plumbing fixtures.
“We retained all the Penniall & Jordan Staff and together with the existing Savvy staff we now have a team of fourteen.”
As for COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown, the new owners took it all in their stride.
“Everyone was very understanding of the situation and what had to be done,” says Narelle. “We’re very lucky with the team that we have and they handled things brilliantly.”
“Everything was all go during March when we took over Penniall Jordan,” Andrew recalls. “Honestly, with lockdown it was good to have a bit of a breather.”
Now that winter is well and truly here, trade has been as brisk as the temperatures.
“There is huge demand for central heating systems, both installations into new houses and retrofitting into existing houses,” says Guy. “This is something that we have been seeing a lot of since taking over Penniall Jordan and something that we want to put great focus on going forward. We have some great suppliers to work alongside with on these projects.”
Narelle says that purchasing Penniall Jordan has been a brilliant opportunity to buy an existing business with an excellent history and extensive client base and mould it into their own thing.
“So far, everything’s been going well, the team are loving their adopted working home of Stratford and the local customers in Stratford have been very supportive.
“Without our valued customers and trades within our network we would not have been in this position to take the next step forward, so we owe a huge shout out to them.”
The partners are excited about giving the showroom a revamp too so keep an eye out for some fresh new touches.
“We have started on the window display area and are excited to showcase some on trend new bathroom displays,” reveals Narelle. “Next up is a cosy little corner to showcase our gas fires which sits alongside the extensive range of log fires we have on display.
“We are very proud to supply a vast range of high-quality log fires and fortunate with our positioning to work so closely with a local manufacturer such as Pioneer Manufacturing who supply us with Metro Fires.”
Savvy Gas continues to offer the full range of services it always has, and operates from the same site as the Penniall Jordan showroom on Broadway in Stratford, along with Mike Childs Builders and Keegan Electrical.
“Having other trades operate out of the same building as us is just brilliant, as we can all work together and help support each other,” adds Narelle.
“We’ve found that Stratford has a really great vibe to it, it’s really busy and everything we need is here.”
Sums up Guy: “We are excited to be able to service Taranaki wide and continue to provide high quality heating systems, plumbing and drainage to the people of Taranaki.”