Magazine Articles – Who Does What in Dannevirke?

WHO DOES WHAT IN DANNEVIRKE?

Trevor Rasmusen, Dannevirke area manager and a top Hawke’s Bay auctioneer, flies into action at a sheep sale, with David Thomson helping to spot bidders. Bright red shirts identify them as HBF men. After “Ras” got a better-than-expected price of $20.40 each for Romney ewe lambs, a bystander growled, “They’re paying too much!” Ras claims that Dannevirke area lambs have better colour – “nice and shiny, more bloom” – than the “dusty, dirty lambs” from other parts of Hawke’s Bay. Ras has been with HBF 37 years and was once featured in TV’s Country Calendar.

Chris J. Bryan, formerly field officer at Gisborne, recently shifted to Dannevirke as executive officer to take some of the paperwork load off the area manager. He assists clients with farm management, budgeting, cash flows, handles land sales and does some work with deer. Chris is an associate member of the NZ Society of Farm Management, a licensed real estate salesman, and earned his Bachelor of Agricultural Commerce degree at Lincoln College in 1974.

Wally Semmens is “one of the most efficient accountants in the company,” according to his boss Trevor Rasmusen, area manager. Wally has been with HBF 22 years.

What is now the produce store – shown here behind Ian Wilkinson, produce store supervisor – originally housed the entire HBF operation in Dannevirke. HBF does a brisk business in stock feed. Another best-seller is Fibrolite pipes (shown left centre) for which HBF is sole agent in Dannevirke. A 400-cubic-foot refrigerator stores Total Dog Food, another product for which the company is sole agent there.

Hardware Manager Harry Perry concentrates on customer service, undistracted by Candid Camera.

Graeme Sinclair, produce manager, heads a staff of five. “We’ve got a terrific team!“ he says. “And when you’ve got a produce agent as good as Allan Burlace, who is well respected by clients, it generates a lot of through-store trade.”

[..]en Wadsworth (left) and Trish Ryan aren’t always this serious.

Deborah Paewai does a test run on the new NCR-299 ledger machine.

Grocery Manager Allan Turkington does a beauty-and-the-beast pose with Debe Peters (left) and Kay Shearman.  Allan has been with HBF 35 years.