From relatively humble beginnings, Dunedin’s Dippie family has created a substantial retail and property portfolio in the deep south. And it’s mostly thanks to the entrepreneurial efforts of brothers Martin (at left) and Allan (at right).
As joint recipients of the 2018 Otago Daily Times Business Leader of the Year award, the brothers revealed how they initially made money as schoolboys by harvesting ponga logs from the Catlins forest and delivering them to customers at night.
Their commercial acumen was encouraged by their parents, Neville and Gaynor, who owned the Nichol’s Garden Market in South Timaru, and it wasn’t long before the teenage brothers started dabbling in the local property market, owning dozens of student flats.
Fast forward more than 30 years, and the duo is still doing business across a range of enterprises including garden and hardware retailing, landscaping, contracting, construction and property development.
While Allan has specialised in property development, especially in Wanaka, Martin has pursued what has become a high-profile retail career. Having bought three Mitre 10 stores in Dunedin in 1994, the 49-year-old has chaired the $1.5 billion co-operative since 2005 and owns a 2.5% shareholding – supplemented by annual director’s fees of $120,000.
Meanwhile, Allan and his wife established Willowridge Developments in 1993. Their first project was the Meadowstone residential subdivision, which consisted of almost 400 sections on 37ha in the heart of Wanaka. Since then, upward of 1000 homes have been built in large-scale developments such as Timsfield, which consists of 345 sites at Lake Hawea.
The company is also behind the Three Parks development in Wanaka, which is proposing to create a new commercial area including large-scale retail, smaller shops and services, a business park, new residential sections, and a tourism and community precinct.
Joint ventures
When it comes to joint ventures, the brothers have many common interests including 50/50 ownership of the Wanaka Mitre 10, which is being converted into a 9000sq m Mega store costing $25 million. Waiting for development is a 126ha landbank worth $35m, the latest project being the Orchard Road/The Triangle project, which is selling lifestyle blocks of up to 2.4ha.
True to their Dunedin roots, both brothers have homes in the wealthy suburb of Maori Hill. Martin and his wife Frances also have a $5m residence in Auckland’s Parnell while Allan and Elizabeth are in the throes of building a new two-storey 478sq m home on a prime 35ha site overlooking Lake Hawea.
When he’s not driving bulldozers, Allan is likely to be found tending to his collection of more than 100 tractors, which featured in this year’s inaugural Wheels at Wanaka Easter extravaganza. He told a local newspaper that the event, which he helped organise, would be back “bigger and better” in 2021.
Photo: Otago Daily Times