Bruce Stewart was a humble man with a fondness for custard squares and his home town of Milton.
He was also extremely curious; a no-entry sign was a green light for him to explore with his young grandsons in tow and he was always looking forward. "What next?" was his catch-cry.
From humble beginnings, the business he co-founded 70 years ago building farm sheds with best mate Lance Calder has grown into one of New Zealand’s largest vertically integrated property and construction groups.
Calder Stewart, which remains privately owned by the Stewart family, is the country’s largest industrial landowner and developer.
Over the past three years, it has completed more than $1.5 billion in infrastructure developments across the country, spanning logistics hubs, manufacturing facilities and civic buildings for clients including Fonterra, KiwiRail and regional councils.
Land has always been a core part of the Calder Stewart business. Over the past few decades, that has included plantation forestry in Otago-Southland, a venture derived from Bruce’s interest in farm forestry, and which now total about 6500-7000ha.
And now the third generation of Stewarts are looking to the next opportunity as the business expands its operations into the likes of renewable energy.
Two of Bruce’s grandsons, Ben and Sam, work in the business, along with several of their cousins, but they make it clear their surname is not a golden ticket to employment, nor was there any pressure to join the family firm.
A young Sam, now head of innovation, never had any intention, thinking it was probably not for him. A chartered accountant by trade, he worked at Ernst and Young and went to London on the typical Kiwi OE.
Covid-19 brought him back to New Zealand and it was then he realised Calder Stewart was a natural fit.
For his generation, the importance of education and also working elsewhere was emphasised.
"It lets you see the real world, what it’s like working for someone. I never wanted a job because of my last name. Family members working in the business have to be the best person in the job," he said.
It was a similar story for Ben, now property director, who studied commerce at the University of Canterbury and then completed a master’s in property and development in Sydney.
By osmosis, he was exposed to the industry and he reckoned it was the equivalent to his father and uncles making dog boxes back in South Otago when they were young.
"It gave you an interest in property and real estate, just figuring out how that worked."
But then he got into track cycling, coincidentally riding at the velodrome in Invercargill which was built by Calder Stewart.
He moved to Cambridge, where he joined the New Zealand track cycling programme for several years and got to travel the world.
Then it was to Queenstown, working for a property investment business, and then the UK, returning like his brother when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, thinking he would ride it out for a few weeks and head back overseas.
But then he started working on a project and, as they say, the rest was history. He has now been in the business full-time for just over five years.
"You’ve got to want to be there and have the skills and hunger to contribute and add value," Ben said.
And both brothers were very aware of the much-quoted third generation "curse" in business; that the third generation squandered what had been made by their predecessors.
But the family had also done a lot of studies on inter-generational businesses and learning from other examples of how it could work.
While Calder Stewart was an extremely significant player at the time of Bruce Stewart’s death in 2018, aged 87, his grandsons said it would have been "awesome" if he could have seen the growth from then and the foray into other things.
"Grandad" was fondly remembered by his grandsons as an incredibly humble, down-to-earth man and with whom travel was always based around where the next food stop was.
When Lance Calder died in 1974, Bruce became the full owner of Calder Stewart but the name was retained out of respect for his friend and to honour the shared start they had together.
He was relatively young when he handed the reins of the business to his four sons — Peter, Alan, Andrew and Donald — but he maintained a huge interest in the business and its people.
And Bruce had a saying, which was now printed on several Calder Stewart office walls — the better the relationships, the better the business — and that simple principle was something that had endured.
He empowered his sons to take risks and to win some things — and lose some things — and continue to be a support. In hindsight, his grandsons said it was a brave move, but one that had worked. And the move had also probably taken what was a real family business to the next level as well.
Both Bruce and his wife Elsie, who died in June last year, aged 92, were huge advocates for their community. Elsie was a big support to her husband and played the organ at church for many years.
Her grandsons said they were delighted the town’s new $19.4 million community library and pool was being named after her, in recognition of her contribution to the community.
Calder Stewart may have grown its footprint throughout the country but its headquarters still remain in Milton, in the "world-class" Revolution Hills complex.
Bruce Stewart always used to say Milton had been good to the business and his grandsons hope that same business has been good to Milton as well.
Earlier this year, Calder Stewart marked its 70th anniversary, attended by current and former staff, and others, at Revolution Hills.
It was a good opportunity to get everyone in one place, which did not happen often, Ben said. For many, it was their first visit to the head office and being able to show them the area Calder Stewart grew from was "really special", Ben said.
The previous night, a dinner was held for those employees who had worked there for 20 years or more and a large portion of the team had notched up that milestone, even working as much as 40 years.
Like the Stewarts, there were other inter-generational families working at Calder Stewart and still enjoying what they were doing, Ben said. There were lots of employment opportunities within the company.
"People are everything, right? You can have all the ideas in the world and not the people to execute them."
The company had been able to grow its own; from on the tools when they started to very senior positions, and that retained a lot of knowledge within the business to ultimately help its customers.
Asked how the dynamics worked in a family business, Sam said the four second-generation brothers each fell into their own areas quite naturally; Peter in construction, Andrew in manufacturing, Alan in property and Donald in forestry. Andrew retired last year but the other three were still active in the day-to-day business.
Not being publicly listed meant the company could invest for the long term and have long-term horizons. It also cut back the "red tape and bureaucracy" and it was important to maintain that agility, Ben said.
He saw similarities with the likes of how Ngai Tahu and other iwi businesses had evolved, able to think well ahead of a listed business or corporate.
"I like to think we can think in generations and not quarters. It leads to decisions with much different time horizons," he said.
Calder Stewart has traditionally kept a low profile, tending to get on with the job without any fanfare.
But there is a sense that might be starting to change a little.
"It’s an interesting one. There’s always been that fly-below-the-radar, down-to-earth, stay-humble approach, especially in the rural communities the further south you go. That’s just what people are like, right? I’m not saying acting differently is wrong, it’s just that’s who we are.
"Once you get to the scale we are, you need to be a little bit more outward facing. The phrase ‘you can’t sell a secret’ is so true," Ben said.
And it is a tremendous story to tell, not only for its impact on the small South Otago town of Milton but also nationally.
In Milton, staff numbered just over 200, there were about 200 in Christchurch and another 100 in teams from Invercargill to Auckland "and everywhere in between".
Looking to 2026, the brothers said there were "lots of exciting things" in the pipeline from a property perspective. The company was very close to securing several new projects in Christchurch and Auckland and it was continually looking at more land opportunities to grow that business. Construction was also expected to ramp up.
Then there was the energy space, which was seen as a big area of further growth. Calder Stewart was in the planning stages of a wind farm on land it owned at Awarua, south of Invercargill, and it would attract other industrial occupiers.
Earlier this year, the company also announced it was planning a $3b inland port at Milburn.
So the burning question is — is there a fourth generation of Stewarts waiting in the wings? The brothers said there were "a few knocking around" — but they were all school age and below.
"Maybe at the 80th, we may have some in the business. Who knows what the business looks like [then]?"
