Renowned for his standout choice in footwear, plus his ability to ask ‘posing’ questions, Gary Johnstone (of Brenics food transport and logistics fame) is a South Island transport stalwart who is known to many. He’s a self-proclaimed optimist and, together with his wife Barbara, has created a true, family-run business – and for that reason, he’s a Southpac legend.

Gary was born in Dannevirke but did his schooling in the Tauranga/Te Puke area, shifting around because his dad was (at that stage), a sharemilker or farmer. He says he “always had an obsession with trucks,” however, he left school early and went on a farm-cadet scheme. Fortunately, he quickly discovered he didn’t like the farm work, in fact, he hated milking cows.

“So, I left farming and got my HT on the 11th of the 11th, 1980,” says Gary. “The reason I remember that day is because my wife was giving birth to our first child as I was going for my heavy driving test.”

Gary got a job driving a truck in Hamilton, working for a company that was contracted to Freightways. He did a general freight run from Tauranga to Hamilton, and his first truck was a KL Hino. It was an ex-Coca Cola owner/driver truck which had a V shaped deck, which was not that conducive for carting general freight, because everything would roll into the middle.

“I dare say, I was what I would consider today as a numpty,” Gary smiles.

“I don’t know how much stuff I dropped off the deck of the truck driving down the road. One time, a drum fell off the back of a truck going up the Kaimais. Luckily, behind me was a Hamilton crane, so we were able to stop, pick the drum up, put it back on the truck, and I carried on to Tauranga. I had it delivered and signed POD and everyone was happy.”

Around 1981, the family moved to Tauranga and Gary started with Dawe & Sons in Te Puke. 

“The owner Robin Dawe has had a really big influence in my career,” says Gary. “And even some of the stuff we do in our business today, I learned from Robin.”

In 1984 Gary and Barbara’s second child came along, Brendon, with Gary saying, ‘he was born to be a truck driver’, and that’s all he ever wanted to do. It was in 1986 that things really changed, with Gary clearly recalling a conversation held down the back of Dawe’s yard, oddly at the stock effluent truck-cleaning area.

Gary says: “I was washing my truck and Robin asked, ‘did I want to be my own driver?’ And that’s where it started. And to say we’ve never looked back isn’t true, man we’ve had our tough times, and we’ve had our ups and our downs, but it started from there.”

“The first truck was a brand-new Mitsubishi 315. I got it brand new when I was a company driver, then took it over as owner driver three years later. I called it Hush Puppy because it made a hell of a noise.

Gary says their first finance rate was 16% and it went up as high as 24%, ‘but it never got to 28 like some of them’. That said, they were tough times with Barbara having to work full time to make ends meet.

“Late 1986 we headed down a different track to the other Dawe’s owner drivers. The others went for higher horsepower tractor units, but we headed down the track of purchasing our own set of trailers, which was a Domett Fruehauf flat deck B train 4-axle,” says Gary.

“You always remember the first equipment you buy, the rego of that truck was LA3026, the trailers were 54 and 55 QPT.”

Then in 1987, Robin Dawe bought a Ford Louisville from Australia, and they asked if Gary was interested in buying it? (Robin would trade him out of his Mitsi). Of course, Gary jumped at it.

“It’s common knowledge in the industry that the reason that truck was called Lou-evil is because of Brendon, my son,” Gary smiles. “When he was a young fella, he couldn’t say Louisville and he always called it a Ford Lou-evil.”

While on the matter of family, Gary believes that there’s not enough credit given to the partners. He stresses that his wife Barbara used to have a full-time job, she ran the family, she bought up two kids, essentially on her own – because he was never home.

“They’re the ones that do the hard work,” Gary says. “We’re the ones that get all the glory because Brenics is Gary Johnstone etc, but the wives are the ones that really do the hard work in keeping the whole thing together. And I don’t actually think that’s recognised enough in our industry to be honest.”

He continues. “We celebrate women in the industry and there are some really great women in our industry, but most don’t do it to be recognised, they do it because it’s part of what they do. And as for my wife, she doesn’t even like trucks.” 

Joking aside, Gary and Barbara get on extremely well. Gary says that he’s a person that sees the world through rose-tinted glasses, so everything’s going to be okay, whereas Barbara’s more conservative.

“So, if it was up to her, we would never have bought our first truck, but if it was up to me, we’d have been broke three or four times. Because, in the early days, what appeared to be an opportunity was really just a pie in the sky idea,” Gary laughs.

That Lou-evil truck served them well and they were making money, and then they had the opportunity to buy another truck. 

“I fell into the trap of ‘I can make twice the money with two trucks’,” Gary says.

“From an owner-driver’s point of view, this is totally incorrect. But you learn these things as you go along.”

Regardless, they bought a second hand 1982 Mack off of Robin, which I ended up driving myself.  

“To be honest with you, I think that put us on the map and started our journey to where we are today,” says Gary.

“Because we run Auckland-Dunedin, and then back loaded out of Invercargill, back to Auckland. And then the next week, we would load Auckland into Invercargill. So, Alister Reeves, the other owner-driver, and I did alternate weeks into Dunedin.”

They then moved to the South Island carting bananas, however, and due to some changes and some hard times, they sold their best truck, kept the Mack and just travelled the country by themselves for a while. As things again improved, they bought their second brand-new truck, a Volvo, (the last of the F12’s), and started carting bananas internally in the South Island.

“Two people have had a real influence in my business life,” says Gary. “And that is Robin Dawe and a guy by the name of Mark Thompson. I think Mark is now the CEO of Nelson Airport.”

Gary says that Mark took him out of a truck into the office. 

“Mark taught me three things about management, which I’ve never forgotten. Never yell at your staff, which has taken me 30 years to put into practice. Never try to be liked by your staff but always try to be respected. If they like you, that’s a bonus.

“And the third thing was, always walk through the store before you go to your office. And I’ve never forgotten that.”

Next, they met Tom Tracy, another man Gary has an enormous amount of respect for. He was then the CEO of MG Marketing and together they created what is now Brenics. 

“When we first started, we called our company, MG Transport Marketing Division, because we wanted to try and show the world that MG Marketing had a transport business or transport arm, same as Turners. So, we started that in 1995, but we had to incorporate a company, and that’s when Brenics was first Incorporated.”

Gary says that they had a competition with their seven staff, to come up with a name. Gary wanted ‘Produce Roadways’ as the company name, but they had suggestions such as Turnip Transport and Carrot Carriers.

“But my wife wanted Brenics which is an acronym for our three children – Brendon, Nicola and Scott,” says Gary.

Brenics grew to a point where it was a 45-truck operation, with Gary saying that in fairness it was probably grown more from ego (and a little bit of naivety), because he was young and enthusiastic and wanted to have a nationwide produce carrying business. They had the opportunity to sell the business in around 2011, which they did, and 18 months later, they were approached to purchase some of the business back. Which they did.

“Barbara and I did a deal, and we took over that business on the first June 2013. We had some people that rallied around to help us set this thing up again. A fortnight later, Barbara and I were flying out to the `States for, I think it was six weeks, so we left them to it, and credit to all those people in the early days, it was still there when we got back,” he jokes.

Brenics is now a 24-truck operation and ‘trucks along very well’. It carts in excess of a million crates (around 1.4 million) a year out of the Nelson region and around the South Island.

Gary says their association with Southpac Trucks started a while ago, with a salesman that initially sold Western stars but then left and went to Southpac. 

“So, we bought our first K104 in 2003 and that was a Cat-powered 6-wheeler tractor. And the reason we’ve continued with that brand is because it suits what we do. That road in and out of Nelson is not for the faint-hearted, and it’s quite tough on equipment.”

He says that the other thing that they like about Southpac equipment is that Brenics like to turn their gear over in seven-year cycles. And with Kenworth in particular, ‘they’re a little bit dearer up front’, but they can make a decision in seven-years’ time on whether they want it to do another turn. So, spend a bit of money on it, refurbish it, and keep it for another 5-7 years.

He says: “In my view, there’s no other brand of vehicle on the market you can actually do that with. Plus, it attracts a good quality driver as well. So, it’s fit for purpose for us.”

Then there’s Gary’s preferred footwear – Crocs. He says he came across Crocs when they were in Vietnam.

“There was a bright blue pair of Crocs, which I’d never seen before. And because I like to be a little bit different, I put them on my feet, and we’ve formed a bond with the footwear ever since.”

Now the rest of his family wears them, well almost. He bought Barbara a pair of Barbie Crocs, but she will only wear them at home.

“She is a very lucky girl; she has got her name on hers. And I now see quite a few of my staff are wearing crocs when they drive. So, some of my influence is rubbing off, my good taste in footwear. But my son Brendon always says that the holes in my Crocs are for my dignity to leak out. He refuses to wear them.”

The big thing that Gary really enjoys about his story, is that it’s a family business, where their three kids work.

“Scott, who is our youngest, runs it. He’s our GM. He runs it on a daily basis. My daughter Nicola, she looks after HR and admin. And Brendon, my oldest son, looks after everything in operations.”

“To start a business that your children are extremely passionate about as well and are taking over is really somewhat humbling and really exciting.

“My role now is to be there for advice and support where needed. And when the kids think I am being a pain in the ass, they send me off in my truck for a drive.”