Te Ao Business Concepts

Kerikeri business owner Martin Yakas of Ngāti Rehia says he’s driven by getting whānau into warm, dry homes in ‘the North’ where he grew up, in a region with a major housing shortage.

Martin started his business with just one other employee where they worked for Northland iwi repairing houses to be weathertight. He’s now grown his team to 12, including two wahine who just started.

“Lots of these whare weren’t dry or warm, and they leaked. I’ve built the business up gradually and after getting our first shot at a new build in Kerikeri we started getting noticed for our quality and delivery on time.”

Along with helping with the housing shortage, Martin’s other passion is working with the local high school to offer rangatahi a chance to learn building skills.

“I help out a lot of Māori youth who are heading down the wrong path and I give them a chance to upskill through apprenticeships. I’ve seen them turn themselves around into being role models after coming off the streets.

“The waiting list for houses up here is massive. It takes on another angle when Māori are seeing Māori building houses. It’s important to me we are building homes for local people that need it,” he says.

This task describes how using Te Ao Māori business concepts makes a business different. It uses a made up business based on one run locally in Christchurch.