Our People

At the ripe old age of 14, Darrell got permission to leave school, buy a pair of work boots, and get stuck into sawmilling with his Dad, Geoff. Darrell is the fourth generation of his family to be involved in this business.

Under his ownership, the company has developed from a small processor employing extended family on Pigs Head Road, to a two-site operation that employs almost 70 people within the Whangarei and Waitakere communities.

Darrell has spent almost 50 years in the thick of the business. While it’s still not unusual to see him cruising around the Kauri yard on a forklift keeping an eye on things, he is finally starting to take some time for himself and ease into semi-retirement. Never content with sitting around for too long though, Darrell splits his spare time between bashing away at a golf ball chasing that elusive single-digit handicap or bashing away at his drum kit chasing that elusive Mel Gaynor drum solo.

After finishing up at uni, Felice moved home intending to work in the family business for only as long as it took to save money for an OE. Starting with operating the Boiler on the dreaded weekend shift, it wasn’t long before she discovered that the practical hands-on work suited her far better than business studies ever did.

Felice never went on that OE, instead preferring to spend the best part of a decade working in different Drymill production centres, including completing a Timber Machining apprenticeship. Felice has a particular passion for people and company culture. She is excited to support and lead an already capable and cohesive team move towards the company mission and achieve each of their individual goals.

Outside of work, you’ll find Felice mucking around with her old Mark II Cortina and trying to find a moderated balance between Chardonnay consumption and long-distance trail running, with a 100 km distance her personal best.

After ten years working in Sawdoctoring and Sawmilling production, Jeremy transitioned over to the sales team in 2018, to become our primary rep on the road. Given his processing background, Jeremy is an excellent source of technical advice for our timber customers and is great at helping them problem-solve through tricky situations or enquiries.

Jeremy enjoys getting out to see customers and has developed strong relationships with new and existing customers through his genuine and relaxed approach. You don’t need to ask him twice to take a few customers out for a more social catch up, particularly if the races are involved.

Once tools are down for the working week, you’ll find Jerermy out on the rugby field playing for our beloved Hikurangi team – despite a few old injuries and warning signs! He also has a classic car in the form of a Ford Galaxie that he imported from America and has spent countless of hours rebuilding.

If there ever was a company stalwart, it’s Chris, who has worked for three generations of the Croft family over a period starting in 1989, when the company set up their first Auckland yard in Albany. Chris came on board without knowing the family or business and turned out to be a committed and integral key to our success in moving to the Auckland market.

Chris still manages our Auckland distribution yard, which is now based in Waitakere. He is another one of our not so secret weapons when it comes to the quick and consistent service that our customers have come to expect. Chris will do whatever he can to make things happen for our customers and won’t let anyone down if he can help it. He takes pride in the level of service that he provides and works hard to lead the Auckland team cohesively to meet our customer expectations.

A lover of tinkering around with projects at home, Chris recently hand-built a mini trailer camper, affectionately called the “WeePod”, that he and his wife Lynn plan to take around the countryside exploring at weekends.

When Kylie joined the team in 2016, we couldn’t quite figure out how we managed to entice this tech-savvy, business suit-wearing, professional to our dusty timber processing shores. After initially starting as our Office Manager, Kylie’s role and skill set have progressed, so she now takes care of the company Health and Safety as well.

Not long after she started, we discovered the real Kylie, when she happily ditched the professional attire and willingly embraced our banter, jeans and hoodie policy. With no hesitation in getting her very small-sized work boots on and traipsing out into the yard, Kylie never hesitates to get out alongside the guys to make sure they are looked after and feeling safe. Kylie has proven to be a passionate advocate for the team’s Health and Safety, and the crew have no problem approaching her with their concerns.

A dab hand at a bit of DIY, you can find Kylie on the end of a few power tools on the weekends knocking up entire outdoor furniture sets if she feels like it, or pacing away on the treadmill binge-watching the latest Netflix series.

A dream accountant for any company who wants someone that counts every company penny as if it’s her own, Ange has been with us through the good times, and then some very low times, including the GFC. Throughout it all Ange has always been committed and personally invested in the company’s viability and success.

Joining us in 2002 from a professional accounting firm, it didn’t take long for Ange to adjust to our very relaxed working environment. It’s sometimes easy to be fooled by Ange’s hard accountants exterior until you crack a joke in her presence and remember that she loves a laugh and is almost impossible to offend.

With a background in competitive swimming, Ange still enjoys her fitness, attacking the loop regularly and partaking in body pump every few days just in case we ever need her to get physical on the debt collecting front.

With an extensive technical background in project and maintenance management, as well as Electrical Programming, the Croft team was lucky enough to convince Leo to join the team in 2013.

Between Leo’s technical skill set and the knowledge of our long-serving existing engineering staff, we’ve been able to develop a maintenance department that we couldn’t have dreamt of in our Pigs Head Road days, that includes CMMS and a focus on PM.Leo had previously spent a lot of time working for corporates and working to their larger scale budgets, but to his credit, Leo easily slotted into our family way of doing things and our reduced resources by comparison. He has struck a pragmatic balance between the corporate and private worlds to our advantage.

In between completing a milestone house build, Leo enjoys risking his front teeth by doing extreme mountain biking on the weekends. As if that wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, Leo also loves his sailing and has completed a two-person sailing circumnavigation of the North Island with our previous GM, Dave.

Darren is based at our Whangarei Branch and is responsible for Northland sales and distribution. Darren joined us in 2007 and at that stage had already spent over ten years in the timber and hardware sales industry.

Darren is yet another example of our committed and genuine sales team, who is always striving to do right by his customers. He pulls through for his clients time and time again and is incredibly patient, no matter the enquiry or problem. Darren leads the Northland Despatch team and works hard to successfully get them on board with our goal of delivering the best possible service for our customers. Darren is also the critical export contact within our business and manages almost all of the phytosanitary and export documentation process himself.

If Darren isn’t out on the water chasing that elusive 20-pound snapper, you can find him being a complete sucker for punishment at home or Mt Smart Stadium supporting the NZ Warriors year after year.

Jonathan, who prefers the nickname JT, has been a part of the company for over four years and started as a labourer within our Sawmill division. JT’s commitment, integrity, and willingness to go above and beyond, no matter the role or responsibility, became evident pretty quickly. JT moved promptly through several internal promotions, and at the time of writing this in 2021, JT has worked in all of our Production and Sales departments.

JT recently accepted his biggest promotion yet – transitioning from a Whangarei-based sales support role to become our primary Auckland-based sales representative. Accepting this offer was no small feat for JT and his family, who had to be ready for the upheaval that comes with moving cities, schools and so on. If any of our Auckland customers haven’t yet met JT, you will no doubt soon cross paths with him and be able to experience firsthand his approachability, patience and responsiveness.

Family is JT’s number one priority, both immediate and extended. Originally hailing from Fiji, JT loves the coastline and getting out for a fish wherever possible – so don’t be surprised if he drops hints about getting some local fishing knowledge when he stops in for a sales visit. We also have it on good authority that all you need to encourage JT to carry a tune is a couple of nips of whiskey and Toto’s Africa playing in the background.