QnA with Repost’s Liam Garlick
Liam Garlick is our General Manager and the glue that holds the Repost day-to-day runnings together in Marlborough. We decided to sit down and get him to answer some questions.
Where are you from Liam?
Born and raised Southland Lad. The only thing I left behind is the mullet. I'm one of 10 siblings, so quite a tribe. Father was, and still is, a pilot/aircraft engineer, so many a weekend faffing about in the skies above the endless Southland farmland.
What drew you to being part of Repost?
My dad is an amazing role model in his passion for planes and for a while I have seeked that same level of purpose. I have done a few different career roles in my short life (I’m 28). I achieved a building apprenticeship straight out of school, I nearly completed a butchery apprenticeship, offshore trawling and then settled into project management in the construction industry for a few years, but I still longed for more of a purpose. Hands down Repost has given me that, i’m now settled and 100% fulfilled.
What's your favourite part of the role?
I wouldn't be able to pin point one single part, from the social side on both viticulture and farming industry, making solid relationships with farmers as well as vineyard managers, to the fickle world of freight and logistics (set to be grey before I'm 30). This "job" does not feel like a job whatsoever, Repost to me is a purpose & a movement to both reduce unnecessary waste to landfill and at the same time enable fair priced fencing products across NZ. Im bloody proud of my role in this greater vision and mission with the larger Repost team.
What feedback do vineyards generally feel about Repost processing team?
They love our A-team processing staff. Many say they often wouldn't even know the team are there if we didn't tell them! (baring in mind these vineyard span km’s), so most of the vineyard broken post stockpiles are right out the back of the property.
The vineyards teams are all very kind and relatable as well as all passionately love what they do and get what role we provide in the bigger picture of their vineyards waste reduction story.
The vineyard manager will visit at the start of the job, seeing a pile of broken vineyard posts and come back a couple of weeks later to a tidy, bare site the ultimate before and after unveiling! It’s rewarding for all involved to see this process.
What feedback do you get from farmers?
Gratitude.
It can play on the heart strings but so often I will get feedback from farmers essentially saying, "We simply could not have done it without this option of fencing product". With alternatives such as brand-new timber fencing being three to four times the cost, it's just not doable in so many cases with the way things and budgets are currently.
Hands down the thing that gets me up every morning above all else.
What do you do when you are not at work?
Question for you? What is not working… Nah, although I'm not a farmer nor claim to be, I do actually live on one and enjoy the quiet life. I enjoy taking my dog Riley for walks up in the hill country, I have a passion for aviation & flying, and am becoming somewhat of a piece of furniture at my local!
Liam, Greg (Owner) and Tom (Engineer) on a repurposing site