Hancocks Sustainability
A multi-generational legacy creates a sustainable family business
Since the 1940s the family name Jakicevich has been synonymous with wine. That’s when Joe Jakicevich’s grandfather, Josef, having escaped the political turmoil of Dalmatia (now Croatia), planted his first grape vines in the promising soils of Oratia (West Auckland) in Aotearoa New Zealand. Today, Joe, managing director of Hancocks Family Merchants, carries on the Jakicevich tradition of the wine and liquor business – including, as his ancestors did, getting dirt under his fingernails, at the vegetable garden at the company’s state-of-the-art headquarters in the Auckland suburb of Māngere.
Give Joe Jakicevich whānau and fine wine – and he’s a pretty happy man. Add some solar panels, tanks to capture rainwater, fruit trees, a vegetable garden, bee hives and some chickens – and he’s in seventh heaven.
Joe is the managing director of Hancocks Family Merchants, which has its headquarters in purpose-built ultra-modern premises in Māngere in south Auckland. He calls this special place Te Whare Tuuranga, a name that speaks of whakapapa – genealogy, ancestry, identity and interconnectedness across generations. This is where Joe’s two sons, Jedda and Tonci, are part of the generational legacy – Jedda is general manager commercial while Tonci is family business manager – and where staff are just like extended family.
It is where there are veggies for everyone to take home to help feed their families, as well as the limes, lemons, mandarins and apples from the young but increasingly productive fruit trees that have been planted as part of the landscaping instead of the usual ornamentals.
It is also home to bees – swarms saved by Lion Apiaries beekeepers and brought to starter nucleus hives on the property, the aim being to populate bigger hives around Auckland while also pollinating the Te Whare Tuuranga vegetables and fruit. To thank Hancocks for hosting the hives, Lion Apiaries provide jars of wildflower honey for staff to take home.
The 40 m2 vegetable gardens at Te Whare Tuuranga are a shared responsibility with everyone helping with planting, watering, weeding and harvesting - and the produce is then shared with the team. Likewise, staff receive fresh eggs from the nearly 100 hens kept on-site in a contained free-range environment. Their care and feeding are also a shared responsibility – and there is even a live chicken camera installed where anyone can go online at www.hancocks.co.nz/coup_cam to check on the ‘girls’ .
Joe says: “Our people are our greatest resource. Some have been with us for more than 30 years with several generations of the same families coming to work with us. Their health and wellbeing are important to us, as is their personal and professional development”.
Amongst the facilities are free on-site gyms, one at Te Whare Tuuranga, where 180 of the company’s 300 staff are employed, and another at its Christchurch premises. Mental wellbeing is also taken care of and there is health insurance for everyone, along with health workshops and checkups, and smoke-free working environments.
Hancocks also reaches out into the community, including a close association with Te Akitai Waihua iwi whose land and protected waterways are adjacent to Te Whare Tuuranga, as well as supporting a range of community initiatives – from Kindness Collective food drives and eyeglass collections for the Lions International Recycled Eyeglass programme, to Movember and the biannual Bosty Bash which raises funds for special needs children. There is the Te Whare Tuuranga Op-Shop too where staff can drop off donations with excess goods sent to the Pacific islands.
Hancocks is committed to reducing its environmental footprint and, Joes says, does so with a range of initiatives. “At Te Whare Tuuranga we use solar energy to provide our electricity – and we are committed to working alongside brands and suppliers that are aligned with our sustainability values,” he says, adding that some 40 percent of the brands in the Hancocks portfolio have comprehensive social and environmental sustainability initiatives.
Another eco initiative at Te Whare Tuuranga is collecting rainwater from the roof of the building. “We recognise that water is a taonga (treasure) and must be preserved. We collect 50,000 litres of water from the roof, storing it tanks and using it to clean our yard, the building itself, and vehicles. It’s also used in the garden and chicken coop. “As a result we’re actively reducing our municipal water demands and decreasing the volume of stormwater entering wastewater treatment facilities, which helps towards reducing flooding and contamination during extreme weather events.”
In terms of energy, Te Whare Tuuranga’s roof sports 480 solar panels. Electricity generated powers the warehouse and office with excess sold back to the national grid. Meridian Energy supplies additional requirements under a Renewable Energy Certification agreement. An online dashboard at www.hancocks.co.nz/solar_dashboard provides up-to-the-minute details about power saved, power sold back to the grid and the savings in terms of carbon dioxide, trees and coal.
Hancocks Family Merchants traces its lineage back to 1859 when Thomas Hancock, described by Joe as a man with a vision and a love for a good ale, established a brewery and pub in Newmarket, Auckland. He sold on-premise and supplied ships and distributors across the city, as well as in Wellington and Christchurch.
The company went through various name changes over the decades and was purchased by the Jakicevich family in 1991. The family also has the Glengarry wines, spirits, beer, cider and soft drinks business, named after Glengarry Road in Oratia, West Auckland, where their ancestor Josef first planted grape vines he brough from his native Croatia (then called Dalmatia). In his memory there was also a delicatessen and restaurant named Dida’s (the Croation word for grandfather is dida) which operated for a number of years on Jervois Road, Auckland.