Prime Minister John Key earlier this month inaugurated the impressive new establishment of one of New Zealand’s leading construction products manufacturer, Nauhria, in Manukau City.
The swanky new facility houses the company’s headquarters as well as manufacturing and storage facilities. Nauhria supplies a range of products like concrete wall panels, columns, beams, lintels, stairs, balconies, landings and pre-stressed floors.
Its sister company Nauhria Reinforcing supplies reinforcing steel and mesh via its fabrication service for use in concrete foundations and structures. The company has about a 20 per cent market share in Auckland’s construction market in those product categories.
Before the formal inauguration Mr Key spent nearly an hour mingling with those present and posed for pictures with both guests and the company’s workforce fielding a range of questions and answering them with candour and humour. He was also given a tour of the sprawling premises while being detailed on the finer points of the array of products manufactured.
Mr Key unveiled the plaque in the presence of the company’s redoubtable founder Roshan Nauhria and Executive Director Rakesh Nauhria. Speaking after the inaguration in the presence of a large gathering of building industry professionals, businesspeople, community leaders and a number of Members of Parliament,
Mr Key praised Mr Nauhria’s entrepreneurship and said his success symbolised the Indian community’s capacity and sincerity for hard work and the strong desire to succeed.
Mr Key also commended him for his social and philanthropic activities in the Indian community. While putting his businesses firmly on the path to growth and success, Mr Nauhria always found the time, energy, funds and commitment to contribute handsomely to community initiatives.
Roshan Lal Nauhria’s long time contribution to both the Indian community in New Zealand and the country’s economy has been justly recognised with the conferment of the honour of Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth-II on June 1 last year.
His involvement in community work almost goes back to the time he started out in business. In the 1980s, Mr Nauhria along with a few others felt the need for a proper place of worship for all people of Indian origin who followed the Hindu faith. It was a desire of many but it was only the dedication with which he championed the cause of the project from 1986 that the Bharatiya Mandir became a reality in 1993 after spending seven years and $2 million on the project.
The temple on Balmoral Road, which is indeed a landmark today in central Auckland, attracts more than 4,000 devotees every week and on festive occasions over 3,000 visit it on a single day.
He has also helped other religious organisations like the Hamilton Gurdwara, Otahuhu Gurdwara and Kolmar Road Gurdwara in Papatoetoe. He has been an active member of the well known Hare Krishna temple (ISKCON) at Riverhead. He was deputy Chairman of the temple’s trust for many years. He has actively supported many other temples that have come up in Auckland.
He has extended his philanthropic activities in his country of birth, too. A place of worship has been made by his contributions in the town Dharam Kot in Punjab where he was born.
He has donated funds to build additional facilities to the school where he had his own education. He has also given his hometown a charitable hospital which currently has 28 beds and is planned to be grow into a 50-bed facility with modern amenities. It already has an operating theatre, diagnostic laboratory, X-Ray and ultra sound facilities.
Speaking to Indian Weekender during the inauguration, Mr Nauhria said that the new facility would help the company to serve the country’s construction industry better and more efficiently while providing a safe and state of the art environment to its growing number of employees.
Over a couple of hundred people attended the inauguration of the impressive premises and took the opportunity to take a tour of its various facilities.