Stories

A heart warming story about the origin of Pink Batts.

Peter Jacka

March 18/09

Mr. J. Ling
Chief Executive Fletchers.

Dear Mr. Ling

From time to time I read about you Company’s involvement and successes in Fibreglass Insulation. I was particularly struck by your huge involvement in the Australian market and your current expectations from the spinoff from Prime Minister’s A$3.3 billion package.

Many years ago I had very close ties to NZ Fibreglass (AHI) and thought you may be interested on an historical basis of the early years of the Pink Batts birth, market establishment and final dominance.

Somewhere in the early 50’s I started a two man advertising business called Jacka Brown Advertising Ltd. It was in a small, single room in the old violin shop in Hobson Street. Fully paid up in capital of ten pounds. I expanded rapidly to take over both floors – staff grew to 20 and to 30 and then we moved to newer and bigger premises in Newton and later again to Parnell.

At Newton I picked up the accounts of Fisher windows and doors which in turn lead to acquiring NZ Glass, NZ Fibreglass and all AHI advertising.

When we acquired NZ Fibreglass it was a very small account of about $3000. It was a builder’s merchant product sold only to builders. It had no profile, no public image.

A quick study disclosed to me that it was an extremely good product and very promotable. My pitch was to consumerise Fibreglass by taking it out of the builder-merchant image and promoting it directly to home owners. We gave it the name BATTS – the name of portable platforms for carrying and storing good (including fiberglass).

Large press adverts showed a happy couple climbing up a ladder into their ceiling with armfuls of batts under the caption “AN HOUR IN THE CEILING WILL SAVE YOU 20% on your power bill�

We (NZ Fibreglass and I) broadened their outlet – we ran seminars to all retailers on what, how, when we would promote – cut deals with major retailers like Levenes, Farmers etc and within the course of a couple of years we had dragged PINK BATTS out of the builders merchant image and made it as readily accessible as a pound of butter.

We were given free and full reign in terms of creativity and marketing. Our TV ads were cartoon characters which included a rat-like character called “Sneaky Heat� who sneaked out of homes through the ceiling. And our crime buster Pink Batts thwarted him!

All a lot of fun and highly successful. But we needed to go much further. We aimed for mandatory insulation to be built into the building code. And we did. We created a fabulously successful singing commercial called “DAMM THE DAM� about a Fantail bird, because of all the ecological disaster that would transpire without compulsory insulation.

We aimed heavily worded and large press ads directly at the Government telling of the huge savings in hydro electric generation if every home was insulating with PINK BATTS. At one stage I piled all our press allocation into both Wellington newspapers (only) while the House was sitting and lobbying inferred that it was nationwide. Talk-back on radio was huge and favorable. The radio commercial became a number one seller and is remembered to this day in some quarters.

Of course we did dozens of consumer studies and researched our work with great thoroughness and NZ Fiberglass had probably the most sophisticated marketing team in the country at the time. A winning combination.

Owens Corning’s people came out and spent considerable time with me and my people and adapted much of our strategy to their US market They also sent me to South Africa where I put a similar system in there with very good results.

A month after I retired and went to live in Hawaii I received a communication from NZ -Fibreglass that mandatory insulation in the building code had been passed into law.

All this is of course, historic but it is how, in fact, Pink Batts was born, bloomed and prospered. To have brought mandatory insulation into law was a huge boost to NZ Fibreglass and it didn’t do our reputation any harm either.

I suspect you are not aware of this history. I hope you have been interested.

My agency went to bigger and better things. AHI became our largest account so far followed by 80% of Fisher and Paykel products (refrigeration, washing and drying machines, vacuum cleaners, razors etc) all of Feltex (shoes, bedding, carpets) and many others. I retired at 47 and lived in Hawaii for about 13 years where I became quite a successful artist. I still paint everyday and my work hangs in most countries in the world. But at 82 I am getting slower.
And as you can see my typewriting is as rough as guts. Never did get computerized.

Kind regards,

PETER JACKA

My Story

My Story

Tony (A.J.) Campbell

I joined Fletchers following my OE. I had had 2 years of survey work with Brant & O’Dell setting out locations for instrument landing approach systems (ILAS) on all America manned airbases around the South of England and it was only the pull of home and my Aussie mates in London that found me on a 1945 Harley Davidson heading for home overland. Lyall Ramsay was with me on the Harley & Sidecar and Johnny Muir & Bob Hayhoe in a VW. Following several month in Europe and a Christmas party in Athens we parted company, for snow had fallen in Turkey. John & Bob headed through the snow into India and we, following a free trip to Alexandria on a Russian ship, drove up the Nile (Alex to Nairobi, another story). In Nairobi and Kenya being a colony, we were able to work to replenish the funds. Lyall with Victoria College as a Science Teacher, and I had 2 offers, one with Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners and the other with Roughton Campbell & Fitzgerald. I took the latter as I thought my name might come in handy and they wanted to send me to Arusha in Tanganyika, with free board at the new Arusha Hotel. Here I worked on sewage schemes and water supplies for coffee farms and the Serengeti National Park. In all we were working in East Africa for just over 12 months.

In late ’59 we headed home, selling the Harley in Mombassa for 100 Rupees £7.10.00! Mombassa – Bombay by boat. All around India by train, Calcutta – Perth by another boat and then over the Nullarbor, caught up with Johnny Muir in Sydney, by which time he had been home for 12 months or so and life was dull!

November 29, 1959, with copies of my efforts in both UK and Kenya, and driving my brother’s car I headed for Penrose to drop brother Peter off at consolidated Plastics on Great South Road. His parting shot was “don’t you dare scratch my car�, with that last shot planted firmly in my mind I carried on down the Great South Road until I found a safe place to turn. My intent was to join an Engineering Group in the City – however, as the chosen area to turn was the Fletcher car park, I remember thinking – “If anybody can absorb me Fletchers can�. With drawings under my arm I walked into the drawing office to be met by Father Fallek (Bob). Following a brief look at my work he suggested I go up and see Jack Smith – and that’s how it all started!


The meeting was brief, as I recall, Jack looked at nothing I had with me, but asked if I could set this out, and thrust a roll of drawings at me. Within minutes I was walking out with both mine and Jack’s drawings, with the instruction to go down and see Ernie Barnett for the Landrover and report to Dick Jones at Pakuranga. The job was the first Pakuranga subdivision.

As I recall, it was a good job and Dick a good boss. About May 1960 the job was nearing completion and one morning Jack arrived and asked me if I would go to Turangi to set out the Kuratau Hydro. I recall my first reaction – “No thanks Jack, I have just spent 3 years away from home and would like to stay in Auckland for a while, home cooking and all that! Dick Jones must have overheard my response for after Jack had gone, he pulled me aside and said “opportunity is never lost – someone will always take it�. That evening I thought about Dick’s words so rang Jack the following morning and conveyed I would be glad to take the job.

Kuratau Hydro – 5 miles to the nearest road and 16 miles to the nearest phone/pub! My instructions – build a road in, and a camp for 100 men, complete with ablution block and cookhouse, Mrs Lee is ready to come as soon as you have something to cook on!! I rang John Muir in Sydney and asked if he would join me as Mechanical Foreman – and together with Carl De Jong and John Te Pou we put the camp together and set out the ½ mile long site from the Dam to the Power House. During the early stages of camp construction, I was helping the boys erect the workshop at the top of the site, when looking up I saw what looked like a rather flash car making its way along the rather rough access road. By the time I reached the ground the Rolls had pulled up and I met Joe Craig and George Fraser for the first time. They didn’t stay long and I think they were reasonably impressed but I will always remember Joe’s parting shot – “Tony� he said, “there is only one way to keep your hands clean, and that is to wear a tie!!!� To this day I am not sure if he meant it, but needless to say I took no notice. Following the camp we moved straight into building the Power House, the Dam and all points in between, I had expected a Project Manager to turn up any time and take over from me, but one morning a message came via Radio Telephone from Ngongotaha, Lauri Donaldson (these names are coming back to me as I write) the message read – “Have just won the Lyttleton Tunnel, J. C has said “you bid it, you build it� you are on your own, Jack�

The Kuratau was a good job, we all enjoyed it and following Jack’s departure to Christchurch I became Project Manager and responsible to Lyall Young, our Wellington Area Manager – Lyall soon got to know that John Muir was Jack Brabham’s Mechanic during John’s time in Europe, so Lyall would come up regularly every month to check out the job and have his Jag tuned.

I had great support from all on that job and I will always remember John Te Pou pulling me aside and saying “that when you sack someone you must convince yourself that you are doing it for him.� Then it becomes easy!!

In late 1962 the Kuratau was complete and the camp dismantled, Johnny and I headed for Christchurch to help jack on the tunnel job. On the way we called in the Wellington office where I was presented with a gold watch by Joe Craig in the presence of Sir James, his words were “a difficult job well done Luddie� regrettably the watch engraved “Kuratau Hydro FCC 1962 A J Campbell� was stolen from my vehicle since my retirement on a trip through Wellington.

October – December 1962 – Lyttelton Tunnel, my apprenticeship in Tunnelling, Johnny joined Bill Vivian in the workshop and I came under the wing of Jerry Remmick the Tunnel Supervisor. I enjoyed working with Jerry, and will never forget how the driving door of his Vanguard Car was always awash with chewed tobacco dribble – revolting!! It was Jerry who told me my job was to give ulcers - not get them!

New Year 1963 – found Johnny and me heading for the Matahina Dam site, another 100 man camp job and again the wonderful Mrs Lee came to feed us. This job was a 600ft x 12ft Ø dewatering tunnel for the M.O.W. Matahina Dam as well as a gate shaft and several smaller tunnels and shafts. Jerry joined us as the Tunnel Supervisor but unfortunately he could not scale his own costs down to small tunnels. We had the choice of going broke or firing Jerry – we chose the latter and from then Carl De Jong joined us so we were again a bunch of singles enjoying the challenges of yet another somewhat difficult job. Soon after the start Dave Ronsom joined us as the outside Mechanical Foreman and became known as the fabricator, I could give Dave an idea and he would go away and make it out of scrap, and it would always work – a great help.

In addition to our main contract I would bid everything the M.O.W at Matahina put out for tender. One job was the cutting and bending of all their reinforcing steel. We were cutting and bending our own steel with machines left behind by the three E’s – Dave modified the cutter using a very noisy single piston diesel motor. We won the job and found the modification worked very well in terms of power and noise, the latter preventing the boys talking and wasting time! I was told off by Alex Craig for taking work that should have been won by Fletcher Steel in Rotorua.

Another job was the Motu Investigation Shafts for the proposed Motu Dam just East of Opotiki. We did this on the cost plus a reasonable margin basis, and did very well. Right at the end of the Matahina Project, we were given the job to concrete the roads within the Fletcher Mill Site at Ngongotaha, an urgent job that had to be undertaken during the Christmas shutdown, and completed prior to the Mill’s opening in the New Year 1965. I seem to recall we made it!

At about his time Dave Ransom our fix it man was asked if he would join Jack Craig in setting up an aggregate plant in Otukou to crush about 1 million cubic meters of rock for the Western Hydro Development. We farewelled Dave, and headed North to Marsden Point where Jack had negotiated for the construction of the Marsden A power Station. This contract was under the auspices of Bechtel Pacific. In the first instance (the five of us booked into the Ruakaka Motel) Pat Phillips Accounts from Downers; Tom Skinner Industrial Relations from Fletchers; Roy Poultney Earthworks from Downers; and our John Muir Mechanical.

We cut the 7 wire boundary fence and started to strip the area of scrub in readiness for the first part of the job, a 500 man camp complete with huts for the men, a single staff block for a dozen supervisors of all persuasions, an ablution block and a cookhouse and dining area for our always cheerful Mrs Lee to feed us. I found Marsden a real challenge, for as Civil Superintendent I had to ensure all facets of the job, especially in the early stages, were running smoothly and in the right direction. The number of areas where work was in progress were considerable so I spent my time circulating from work area to work area and was soon given the nickname of “Sputnik�.

All superintendents, that is, Civil, Mechanical, Piping, Electrical and Instrumentation had a Bechtel/American counterpart from whom we received advice, criticism and praise but not necessarily in equal quantities! I remember Bob Ericson my American counterpart, a man of few words coming up to me in the field one day, and in hushed undertones saying “Don’t fill your pen in company ink�. He didn’t approve of my being too friendly with one of the Bechtel office girls. Following the completion of the civil works I was transferred to Kawerau to help John Thompson on the erection of the building to house the new chemical recovery boiler, a structural steel framework 160 feet high, at the top of which was slung a 36 ton boiler drum with 2 huge u-bolts from 7’-0� deep fabricated steel plate beams. Another very interesting job despite the horrific smell of the black liquor, a by-product of the pulping operations going on all around us, we finished the job in good time. I became quite friendly with Ron Hales the site Manager for the Client. The Tasman Pulp and Paper Co, Ron was an unpredictable man known around the job as the “Screaming Skull�. He would take what appeared to be great delight in waiting for an audience before conveying to a Foreman or Supervisor that he didn’t agree with what was going on, in high octave tones that could be heard all over the site – not a gentle man!!!

Early in 1968 found me back in Auckland to run the Fletcher Downer Joint Venture, the Pacific Steel Rod Mill Contract, in Favona Road. At last, after 8 years of being fed by Mrs Lee, and very nicely too, I was home. This contract was interesting from the point of view that both Fletchers and Downers wanted all activities in terms of Administration to be undertaken on site. This way both parties could feel free to inspect our systems. It worked well.

I was soon joined by both Keith Fletcher and Warren Hollings, 2 young building cadets from Auckland’s Fletcher Construction office and in addition Barry Reid from Downers. Barry joined us in the capacity of construction Superintendent. Barry and I had worked together at Marsden A Power Station and knew each other’s idiosyncrasies well. The design of the mill came from International Construction, UK and their representative Malcolm? A real English gentleman, was based on site, however, all construction details were drawn up by the Fletcher Development & Construction Design Office under the direction of Roger Power. On receipt of the Construction details and the schedule of quantities from Maltby & Son I would price it, discuss it with Malcolm and hand it back to Maltby (whose contract was with Pacific Steel) for acceptance. Keith’s job was to chase subcontractors; Warren the office chores, helped by Tracy our Aussie office lass.

Another very rewarding job, helped along the way by George Bourke & Gordon Welch from the Fletcher office and Cullum McLean the Managing Director of Downer & Co.

In mid 1969 I was pulled off the Rod Mill job just prior to its completion to help on the New Plymouth – Auckland stretch of the 8� Gas Line. The office had been established at Te Kauwhata and my brief was to “do what you can to streamline progress’ ie; speed it up! My larger than life memory of this job was the horrific amount of driving I had to do to visit all sections of the job every day. It was winter, wet, cold and very muddy. We were laying the line over the Bombay Hills when I heard over the radio telephone that Ben Dempsey the American Welding Inspector was insisting we cut out our welds even though it passed the x-ray. On discussing the problem with Ben on site, he insisted that he was within his rights to reject welds if he did not like the look of them. During this session on site I learned Ben was a welder, so I suggested he teach our welders to make a prettier weld. He accepted, we did a deal, and from then on we had to deliver the pipe to the line by helicopter to keep ahead of the welders. An interesting job.

December 1969, I was pulled off the Pipeline to ensure an early start at the Tiwai Point Aluminum Smelter, where we had won the contract to erect the buildings. Johnny Muir left us and headed for home in Sydney, just 10 years after joining us for the Kuratau Hydro. He was certainly a great help and friend, we still keep in touch. To compensate, both Carl de Jong and Dave Ransom joined me at Tiwai, along with Don Daley another rock who had been with me since the Kuratau Days. This was another job where we were responsible to an American team from Kaiser Constructors and another job where we battled the elements. This time it was wind and cold. To meet the programme we had to cast and erect 2 columns of 15 tons and 1 x 22 ton rafter every day for 6 days a week and this we did by getting the Stresscrete boys in Invercargill to work 4 x 6 hour shifts daily.


At 7:30 every morning 3 trucks would arrive at the Stresscrete to be loaded, and by knock off that day they would be up, and cast and epoxyed in position. I seem to recall we had to do this for 200 days and in addition erect about 1000 tons of structural steel in various other buildings, one of which was the Alumina Storage Building, an “A� frame 70 ft to the apex and about 150 ft across the base, each rafter weighing 11 tons. During this job John Hood joined us for some work experience. I can’t recall for how long but I do remember giving him some awful jobs, one of which was a Kaiser request to convert all structural steel members from their imperial weight to their metric weight, piece by piece! A likeable young chap.

Christmas 1970, and Tiwai just about finished, found me on the road to Turangi to take over the Whakapapa Intake Structure Contract. This job had been going some time but due to various reasons had not been going well. The Office and Single Man’s Camp was at Otouku not far from where Dave Ransom had crushed the 1 million m³ of aggregate.


The Contract consisted of 4 intake structures, the biggest by far being the Whakapapa, about 23000m³ of concrete. Again we were battling the elements but this time it was cold – very cold. During the winter months the icicles would stay on the cliffs all day and we would have to bring the air temperature up to 3°C and rising before placing concrete. To do this we burned oil in drums where concrete was to be placed. It was on this job that the office lady skidded on ice on her way from Turangi and decided not to come back following her recovery. I happened to be reading the Herald one morning soon after the accident, and saw the article, about travel in Kashmir written by a Tony Giles, I recall it was a good article, but gave it no more thought, generally, after morning tea I would spend a short time checking the camp before pressing on. On this particular morning I happened to go by Tony Giles’s cabin and through the open door I could see a typewriter. Tony at this time was the camp caretaker, his tools of trade being a bucket and mop for cleaning the toilets and dining area, and generally keeping the camp clean and tidy. His previous job was on Manapouri in a similar capacity. On catching up with Tony that morning I mentioned the article I had read, he conveyed he often wrote articles for the Herald to supplement his income. Following a brief chat and a wee bribe, Tony joined me in the office and proved to be excellent in everything I asked him to undertake. When the pressure really came on, that is when reports had to be typed – progress claims to be typed, wages to be done. Tony would often threaten “to go back to the tools�. He never did, and stayed with us for many jobs in his new role as Office Manager until his retirement 2 years ago.

This intake structure contract was unusual in that we were subcontractors to Codelfa – Cogefar an Italian Company that had bid and won the 10 mile tunnel for the Western Diversion from the Ministry of Works (MOW). From the construction point of view the job was a disaster, for if we needed a clarification of detail for construction purposes our only avenue was through Codelfa – Cogefar who in turn would seek an answer from MOW in Turangi. They would turn to their Head Office in Wellington, and they, in their own good time would seek an answer from Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners in the UK. Seldom did we get the answer when we wanted it, it was usually months. The job ended in late 1973 but unfortunately due to the lost time we suffered during the course of construction, claims for our losses extended long after the water was flowing.

Early 1974 saw me looking after the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in St Heliers Bay, Auckland for a few months before being asked to join Gary Searchfield in the building of the No. 3 Paper Machine, another job where the labour force could be difficult and quite intimidating if you let them.

It was about mid 1974, and Jack had won the 508mm Gas Line between Kapuni and New Plymouth. I recall Jack and Ron Hales of Tasman discussing whether or not I should leave the No. 3 Paper Machine. Jack won on the proviso that I would return to help Gary again once the 508 Line was completed.

The 508 line was a big job, and we had our hassles, but Fox our American Spread boss and his team of welders and experts certainly helped to get the job completed in reasonable time. I seem to recall the terrific amount of wet weather, but in addition and on the other side of the coin I recall Fox on the lead side boom, and 2 of his expert operators on the following 2 side booms putting the pipe in the trench faster than I could run, pretty to watch.

4th July 1975 saw me heading back to Kawerau to once again help Gary make paper by September, much to Ron Hales delight. I think we made it. Early 1976 I was back in Auckland helping George Bourke on the Alex Harvey Industries Head Office Complex at Manukau City. An interesting job but not really my scene, so in addition to this job I was doing all sorts of trouble shooting and helping Jack and Sepp on the Codelfa – Cogefar claims. One big trouble shooting job was the Culverden Canal in North Canterbury. The big problem here was the lining. The MOW insisted that we lined over the ground water flowing through the canal banks. It was obvious this would never work and they eventually agreed on a “Variation to Contract� to channel the flow from these down 3� drains to the invert and there we connected them to 1, 2 and then towards the end of the canal, 3, 6� drains. Once these were covered by hand and compacted, lining could be placed to both the invert and the canal banks. The job took longer than expected but finished up a successful contract for all concerned. Following this I was back in the Auckland Office helping Jack Bryant and his estimating team until November 1979 when I was given Mangere Bridge Completion Contract.

This job was all about keeping those who had been on strike for 2 ½ years happy in their work. Paul Swinburn, Graham Frost and John Bottomly handled the Engineering and I spent my time walking the bridge having my smokos in any one of the 20 or so smoko huts and generally getting to know all our employees by their Christian names. I feel this really worked for we had a very few stoppages. We met with the Union Delegates and officials regularly and on these occasions John Hart joined me from Head Office. They were a volatile bunch and it was on this job that I conveyed to all Foreman “never say anything you can’t gracefully back out of� and that too worked. If I recall we had only 1 strike for a few days in sympathy with Air New Zealand and their problems. On this job Tony Giles was back with me as Office Manager and Pay Clerk, and I recall one pay day, and in those days we paid everyone in cash, my 8 years old daughter Mairi had broken her arm in a school camp so came to work with me supposedly to help me in the Office. Tony did all the looking after, and Mairi still talks about going out onto the bridge with hard hat on and $30,000 in her sling to help pay the boys.

In early 1983 following the completion of the Mangere Bridge I was off to the NZ Steel Expansion Contract at Glenbrook. This was not an easy contract to manage due to the client’s supplying all the components for us to erect, but never in the order we needed them. It was difficult, and we clocked up horrific numbers of crane and man hours just waiting for the client, Pukekohe Construction Co. to provide. In addition, all Union meetings were programmed to start at 8:00am and as the job started at 7:30am, every week we lost ½ hour for all labor and all plant. I kept presenting these claims but the client refused to acknowledge that these, along with our other lost time claims, were legitimate. By Christmas 1984 our claims sitting on the client’s desk were huge. Following the Christmas break and on my return to the job I found the man responsible for processing our claims had been sent back to England, and his English boss had requested my removal from the job. So much for NZ Steel! The bright side was that I believe Tony Giles, Malcolm Hope and others who helped me with the claims carried on claiming the lost time in plant and man hours after my leaving. Doug Joy stepped in to continue in the management role.

In early 1985 I was asked to oversee both the building and mechanical installation of the Taupo Particle Board Factory and in addition I helped bid the Geothermal Steam Lines in Bandung, Java, and numerous other jobs around New Zealand.

In early 1987 we purchased the construction wing of Brian Perry Ltd in Hamilton. This company specialised in bored piles for high rise buildings and bridges and had recently won the Aotea Centre Foundation Job, and at about the time we purchased, the “Mid City Centre� Foundation Contract in Hobson St, Auckland. I was transferred to Brian Perry soon after the purchase, to instill, I guess, the Fletcher Ethic. Following the Mid City Contract we won the NZI Contract, but due to the share market crash, High Rise Building Foundations dried up. We moved to Civil works in the form of the NW Motorway Bridges, the Auckland International Airport additions to hardstandings and runway repairs and many smaller jobs, one of which was the hardstanding area and hangar foundation at Nandi Airport, Fiji. Towards the end of my time, and just before my retirement we undertook the repair of the underside of the Wynyard Wharf, the high risk, high profit sort of job that creates plenty of challenges. This was a very satisfying swansong, and so ended 35 years with the Fletcher Empire that I wouldn’t swap for the world.

TONY