Tucked away off State Highway 83, in Otematata's Market Pl, a commercial laundry business is making waves throughout North Otago, South Canterbury and the Waitaki and Mackenzie districts.
Just over a year ago, Brian and Dawn Firman established Waitaki Laundry Services, identifying a gap in the market and an opportunity to create jobs in Otematata - a village with just 186 permanent residents, according to the 2013 census.
''The town is dying and without jobs the town will just keep dying. That was the main focus of the whole thing at the start, to get some jobs in the town and it's doing that,'' Mr Firman said.
Waitaki Laundry Services now boasts more than 30 contracts with businesses from Twizel to Oamaru and has created three full-time, and several part-time, jobs in the small Waitaki Valley village.
Set up in the old Twinlake Stores, alongside their other business Lakes Electrical and Whiteware Services Ltd, Mr and Mrs Firman bought two 50kg washing machines, two 16kg machines, three driers and a heated roll ironer, as well as investing $100,000 in linen.
They offer a six-day delivery of linen supply and laundering for the accommodation and hospitality sectors, with clients including Oamaru's Alpine Motel, Brydone Oamaru Hotel and Hot Tubs Omarama.
As well as linen, they also clean overalls for Te Pari Products Ltd and Electrix, mending them if necessary, and have extended their service to wash horse covers and rubber-based mats. They would give anything a go, Mrs Firman said.
It had been a ''full-on, hectic'' first year in business for Mr and Mrs Firman, who headed into their new venture with no experience in commercial laundry.
''I didn't know what you did with sheets, other than just put them in the machine, hang them out on the line and put them back on the bed,'' Mrs Firman said.
''[Mr Firman] is very passionate about Otematata and that's when he started looking into it and, heaven help me, here we are. This has just taken off, it really has.''
Because of their remote location, finding local and reliable staff had been difficult, but they had created a strong team, Mrs Firman said.
''I keep thinking I'm so lucky - they are all awesome, we can get through anything.''
Mrs Firman moved to Otematata when she married Mr Firman, who had been based there since 1977.
They established Lakes Electrical and Whiteware Services Ltd in 2009, now employing four staff - two electricians and two apprentices.
Mrs Firman has taken over management of Waitaki Laundry Services, having to learn how to manage staff, do accounts and operate all of the laundry equipment as the business continues to grow.
''Once we got going, week after week another motelier would come on board,'' she said.
''We got thrown into the busy season from about October onwards. We just got busier and busier and we didn't have enough linen.
''[Driver and company representative] Murray [Wilson] was doing runs to pick up, coming back, we were washing it [the linen], putting it back out and he was taking it back down again - it was just crazy.''
As this year's busy summer season approaches, they are ready.
''We've got [$11,000] more linen for this season and a relief driver now for Murray and we've got a student coming in - she'll start in October,'' she said.
''We'll probably end up doing two shifts, too - morning and afternoon.''
Expansion is inevitable, but the Firmans have not yet had a chance to work out where or how.
