We're a fan - introducing Happy Air Heat Pumps
Keeping things cool in the summer and warm in the winter is the Happy Air Heat Pumps team. In business for six years, Happy Air are relative newcomers to Wiri, having moved to a building on Ash Road in September 2022. Wiri Business sat down with joint founders and husband-and-wife team, Darren and Yvonne Vernon and found out more about Happy Air.
What they do
Happy Air specializes in heating, cooling, ventilation, and service work for both residential and commercial spaces. Darren has been working in the heat pump sector for 12 years but decided to branch out by himself.
“I wanted a better my life for me and my family and have that ability to pick and choose hours. At the start, it was just me working – sourcing materials, doing the job, the invoicing – everything. Then it slowly grew to having a casual guy helping and then another. Now we have five full-time staff”.
Yvonne, who helps with office administration and human resources, came from the travel industry where she worked as a corporate travel agent.
“I decided to join the business after I had my first child – balance of life is so important. It’s been great to watching the company grow into its own little entity. It’s about having the right people in your business using their strengths to grow it”.
Home sweet office?
Yvonne and Darren are happy to have been based in Wiri for the last 18 months after they had finally outgrown their double garage and needed a bigger space for the office.
“Wiri was a perfect location for us. We live in Papatoetoe and didn’t want to be travelling too far. At the time it was extremely competitive to get a space close to home, so when the Ash Road site came up, we snapped it up!” says Darren.
Working together every day
Working alongside with your spouse could be considered a minefield, but Darren and Yvonne make a strong team.
“Being together daily and creating that partnership can be difficult at times. You’ve got to say the good with the bad and the bad with the good. And at the end of the day, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” jokes Darren.
“Jokes aside, there’s a trust and obviously we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so we can just use that to our advantage with the business” adds Yvonne.
“Darren’s strength is that he is a people person, he gets along with everyone and is great at creating a friendly atmosphere” says Yvonne.
“And where I’m less structured, Yvonne is super woman – she tells it how it is and keeps the boys in check. She doesn’t realise how much she is needed in this business” remarks Darren.
Strength is in numbers
Happy Air understand the importance of a strong team and are always working to make sure their people are happy.
“When you’ve got people under you, you’re not just thinking about yourself anymore. Most of the staff that we’ve have been with us from the beginning. We don’t think of them as staff anymore, but as family. As we grow as a business, we want them to grow with us. We want to celebrate them because they’re a huge part of the business. It’s just all about looking after each other” says Yvonne.
“I want to avoid the problem of staff turnover – everything is so much more difficult and inconsistent when there’s staff turnover. We try to recognise their good work as much as possible and make Happy Air a safe and fun place to work” says Darren.
Then, now and the future
In the early days Happy Air concentrated more on residential projects and grew from a steady base of loyal customers.
“We’ve built our business on reputation and word of mouth. We don’t spend fortunes on advertising, we focus on building a strong core of our business. It does mean you don’t grow your business fast as possible, but it does mean you grow more safely and consistently” says Darren.
Looking forward, Darren is looking to move into more commercial work and grow the team.
‘’As a business, you’ve got to adapt and change things up a little bit and move into other areas. Moving into the commercial space with maintenance contracts offers a more consistent workload for our team. It would be great for Happy Air to grow bigger in the future” says Darren.