Our History - Three generations of experience

In 1939, at the age of 14, Herman Morsink Senior left school and began a four year apprenticeship with a firm in the village of Raalte in the Netherlands. During these years, he learned skills such as painting, wallpapering and glazing, and after his apprenticeship, he continued to work for this firm until he volunteered for the army in 1945.

In 1955, Herman, along with his wife, sisters and son, arrived in Invercargill, New Zealand. Here, he found employment with R Richardson’s Builders and George Russell before setting up the United Painting Company in 1958 with Bill Holigan and Maurice Lavell. The United Painting Company worked on a number of projects for farmers in rural Southland who were developing sheep farms.

Then, in 1960, Herman Senior sold his share of the business to Maurice so that he could travel back to Holland. After a six months in Holland, he returned to New Zealand and founded H. G. Morsink Painting Contractors, spending his days painting and his nights planning and pricing work.

As his business expanded, he began to acquire larger contracts. He, and his growing team, worked on projects such as the Clifton sewage treatment and motels in Te Anau. His first major contract involved painting 800 worker huts for the West Arm Dam.

Young Herman Morsink began working for H. G. Morsink in 1973 when they were in the process of painting the Milk Treatment Station. He took over running the business in 1984, one year prior to Herman Senior retiring in 1985 at the age of 60. One of Young Herman’s first achievements was painting the Clare House Rest Home in Waikiwi.

Over the next ten years, H. G. Morsink’s focus was primarily on commercial work including jobs such as the ILT Avenal development (which became Cobb & Co), the SBS Bank in 1990, and the Visitors Centre in Milford Sound. The business continued to expand with staff numbers growing from five tradesmen and an apprentice to 15 team members and, although the focus was on commercial work, there was still a variety of projects being undertaken.

There were some tough times with the stock market crash in 1988, a downturn in the 1998 period, and then a financial crash in 2008 where existing contracts were stopped and new tenders were very slow in coming to the market. However, H. G. Morsink continued to trade despite these times.

Initially working out of his garage, Young Herman realised that he would need a more suitable premises to accommodate his growing team and storage needs. In the mid 80’s, he bought a new workshop located at 262 Bond Street which suited their purposes. It also came with a purpose made spray booth for painting full size doors and joinery. The workshop was revamped in 2015 to streamline the business, and this also included adding health and safety rooms and purpose made training rooms for wallpapering and for spray painting.

Starting in the early 2002 period, H. G. Morsink undertook an extensive portion of the Edendale Fonterra expansion project including Driers 2 and 3, and later, Drier 4, the supporting buildings, and Driers 1 and 2 on the Awarua site. They have since been involved with painting the Invercargill Airport, Stadium Southland - both the original building and the rebuild - as well as the Bupa Rest Home in Ascot to name a few projects.

H. G. Morsink Ltd has been painting in the Southland region since 1961 and with Gregor now taking charge, this marks the third generation to be involved with the business. It is our intention to remain here in Invercargill as we continue our legacy and build on what has been achieved over the last 56 years.