It's a successful business that started out 50-odd years ago as a Pukekohe area piggery, with an old truck bought simply to keep it in pig feed.
That's interesting, given that Riordan & West is now at 16 trucks….and counting. While it's still based on what used to be the pig farm, the trucking business has outlasted the piggery – and become a successful dedicated transport operation in its own right.
What's special though is that one of the originals from the early days of the piggery operation is still in daily work for the business. No, not one of the old trucks….the truckie!
Keith West started driving for farmers Royce Riordan and Alf Whitehouse in 1969. Later he became a 50/50 business partner with Riordan. And now, at 71, he's a shareholder with his son Dave – and he's still driving!
Riordan & West had its genesis in '65, when Riordan and Whitehouse decided to start their own piggery at Puni – a tiny settlement a handful of kilometres west of Pukekohe.