Production thrives in caring workplace

The Christchurch Press - 6 September 2001

Mike Goatley wears two hats. As production manager at Pathway Engineering in Christchurch, New Zealand, he carries the responsibility for meeting large export orders for the company's lightweight aluminum-framed folding chairs known as Alloyfold.

Mike Goatley helps provide guidance and mentoring to members of Pathway's staff who are battling their way through the early stages of full-term employment after spells in prison or long periods out of work.

If the job description is unusual, with its provision for time spent on "pastoral care", that's because Pathway Engineering is an unusual company.

It is run as a limited liability charitable company owned by Pathway Trust.

The trust was formed by a group of friends and fellow members of the Riccarton Community Church who saw a prime place for a holistic approach and Christian values in giving individuals "at the bottom of the heap" a chance to achieve their potential.

Mike Goatley went off the rails as a teenager in Dunedin. "I spent a decade on a very destructive path," he says.

"At the end of that period I had poked a stick at pretty well everything you could poke a stick at, and in 1989 I became a Christian. That was the start of a whole process of restructuring and rebuilding my life," he says.

He resumed a fitter-turner's apprenticeship he had abandoned years earlier and got his life back on track.

"So I have an understanding of the challenges that people have to face as part of that process.

"If there's something positive in my life that I can offer, it's assisting people over that bridge back into a situation where their lives have real meaning.

"I had opportunities open up for me, and I want to help make those opportunities available to others."

Pathway Engineering's managing director with responsibility for over-all running of the company's sales and marketing, Murray Kennedy, spent three years working within a weekly church-based "missionary outreach" to the needy at Cathedral Square and saw that more needed to be done than providing food and conversation.

"About that time I met Mike, who had seen how running a successful manufacturing business could make a difference, and together we set about purchasing the plant and developing a market.

"This was done with a lot of generosity from supporters, a trend which has continued as we've grown."

Container loads of 3000 to 5000 chairs or chair-frames regularly leave the factory for outdoor hire firms in the US, where a single company could stock more chairs than the entire New Zealand market.

The raw alloy is sourced and extruded from NZ suppliers and after fabrication is processed at an anodising plant set up as an adjunct to the Pathway operation by "someone - a dairy farmer - who thought the same way we did, and wanted to help out".

The two companies maintain a close relationship and recently staff from both enjoyed a day at Hanmer Springs together to mark the completion of a big export order.

"For a lot of the staff, it was the first time they had done anything like that in a long time," says Mike Goatley.

He says the offer of the anodising plant came just in time to avoid a serious bottleneck that threatened to strangle Pathway's ability to expand production.

"It was just one of the incredibly generous things that have come our way. So many people have volunteered their time and resources, and we also believe in the God factor. He's the Creator, and He's interested in people, too.

"There have definitely been some successes along the way that we can't attribute to luck."

One major breakthrough was the gift three years ago of a somewhat run-down youth camp at Motukarara, at a time when the trust behind Pathway Trust was looking for a way to invest its profits in a community programme that fitted its aims of reinforcing families.

"We got the camp for $1 and we've been doing it up. It's now a great place for solo parents who couldn't otherwise afford family holidays to go.

"It is also being used as a refuge for people who need to get away, anonymously, and there's a food bank being run there."

The trust has also run a pilot programme for youngsters in trouble at school but Murray Kennedy says that provided a lesson in the dangers of taking on too much, with too few resources.

"We haven't given up on the idea of running training programmes altogether, but we need to be getting more profits out of the business to adequately fund it."

Meanwhile, they are focusing on "quality, not quantity" in their efforts to help rehabilitate the staff who find their way to Pathway Engineering.

"If we can succeed with just one person, we feel we are on the right track," he says.

"It's a very long-term process and it requires lots of perseverance and patience. We have to give people room to grow and it doesn't always happen first time around."

He says people have been given second, and third chances to return to the company, sometimes after periods in jail.

"Just because they fail once, it doesn't mean they don't deserve another chance. It could be difficult for them just getting to work, or getting here on time.

"We give them room to grow and help them through the tough times."

What overt role does the Christian ethos of the Pathway directors play in their relationships with staff?

"There's a poster on the factory wall," says Mike Goatley.

"It quotes St Francis of Assisi saying `Preach the gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words'.

"In other words, it's the way you live that counts," he says.

"That would pretty much sum up where we're coming from.

"Any beliefs that people adopt are a personal thing and 100 per cent their choice.

"Our heart-felt desire is for them to achieve a greater level of their God-given potential."

You can learn more about the Alloyfold II chair by calling toll free from the USA on 1-888-368 7713 or by visiting http://www.alloyfold.com or send an email to sales@alloyfold.com