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Reasons for setting up companies can be as varied as the companies themselves – to commercialise a great idea, be able to dictate your own destiny, fill a perceived gap in the market, or follow a lifelong passion.

 Malcolm Ngatai has an even simpler explanation for his journey. The owner of Christchurch underground services firm Suck It Up explains why he began in business 10 years ago: “It was to finance my stock car racing. I did it on wages and salary for a long time, maxxing out my credit card every season and spending the winter paying it off. It was painfully obvious I needed something more.”

At the time Malcolm had been managing Canterbury Waterbl... ... 

Everybody has their ups and downs in life. You know – the usual highs and lows. But in his 50 years so far, East Coast log truck and forestry operator Ricky Kuru’s lows have been devastatingly, destructively deep. And the highs? Extraordinarily, spectacularly high.

The trend started early: The kid who doted on Dad Jack and lived for the hours they spent together in truck and machinery cabs, turned into a teenager who fell out with his family over his rebellious ways….

Which saw him kicked out of school and fathering a child before he was 15, ending up behind bars….and sleeping on the streets.

Then the rebound: He found his partner for life (wife Leanne)... ... 

Suddenly noticing just how many trucks on the nation’s highways now wear the distinctive black Mainstream livery has given many people the impression the firm has come from nowhere. 

However, says founder and managing director Greg Haliday, the firm is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and it has been there all along, just ‘in hiding’. 

It has been steadily expanding its network by acquiring other trucking firms, bringing them into the fold to extend its reach and to provide the service standards Mainstream demands for its customers.

“We just didn’t bother to rebrand everything that was there because the cost would be millions — I thi... ...