Following on our report on the impressive achievements of Dad, Jack Kuru (NZ Logger, July 2019), we catch up with Kuru Contracting’s Ricky Kuru, to find he is more than following in his father’s footsteps.
What started as a small business building forestry roads, became a hugely-successful log harvesting and forestry roading operation.
The business was not without its challenges before Jack bought Ricky out, but this East Coast forestry force is back up to five harvesting crews… with probably $30m or more worth of machinery.
Plus there’s a fleet of eight log trucks, a heavy-haulage transporter, a crane truck and two bulk tippers – the latter doing forestry roading and civil construction work.
The Tolaga Bay base includes a service station, shop and café, as well as the company’s workshop and offices. Kuru Contracting now employs around 97 people.
Ricky also has other projects on the go: Modular houses built in China; five quarries and metal crushers in a partnership with General Manager, Ma Parata; a residential subdivision and a handful of houses (so far) in Tolaga Bay – built to attract staff… and plans for a state-of-the-art sawmill in town as well.
It all looks and sounds sweet… another huge high in the Ricky Kuru life story. And it is…
Or, at least, it was: But there have been shadows over the Kuru/ world for two or three years now: Sadly, Ricky’s beloved Dad (and mentor) died in mid-2020 – having bravely carried on driving his bulldozer every day, as he battled cancer.
Extraordinarily, in the Ricky Kuru story, the extreme highs and lows apply to his physical state just as much as they do his business status: After Jack’s death, Ricky discovered that he has the same gene suspected of causing his Dad’s terminal cancer.
Pro-actively, in true Ricky Kuru/take-things-head-on style, he’s now had surgery to remove almost all of his stomach in a bid to avoid stomach cancer himself.
And, again the business empire that Jack and Ricky built… then rebuilt, is under threat – and Ricky’s again in a fight to protect it.
To read more, get your copy of the March 2023 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 6 March. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).
