Genesis
Once upon a time, or put another way………..in the beginning, two motivated but young electricians, Terry Smith and John Everett, had a “bright” idea. After working tirelessly for their boss over several years, they thought they would be better served working for themselves.
It was 1965, Australia was in a recession and with zero commercial experience, very little money and no tangible assets – the timing seemed perfect and the decision was made! All that was needed was a trigger to start the process and this trigger turned out to be a wager – Terry Smith bet John Everett that he didn’t have the “bottle” to give notice.
As with every bet between them, Terry lost and so with a sense of impending doom, a pregnant wife and living with in-laws for want of place to live, he threw in a steady job with a reputable company to follow suit and so began the genesis of Everett Smith.
The Birth & Early Days
The early days of Everett Smith were memorable, one ex-estimator and one leading hand back in the trenches and on the tools, experiencing new levels of painful endeavour and gaining a new appreciation of how wealth was acquired – work is exchanged for reward!
The first job was installing light fittings for CEC Hiddlestone on a concrete ceiling for 5 shillings each (50 cents) and this was coupled with their first major building work – a two-storey block of 24 flats, all during 1965.
The first Government contract at Cannington High School was soon followed by a rewire at the Old Barracks at the top end of St Georges Terrace and then new lighting at Perth Modern School.
Everett Smith seemed to have achieved a small amount of momentum as minor commercial works and maintenance jobs started to appear on a regular basis. The next step up was Ross Fisheries in West Perth, when Everett-Smith was awarded their upgrade works.
It was on this job that Everett-Smith were first able to demonstrate their ability to undertake more complex installations comprising of controls and refrigeration, food processing and air conditioning. Everett and Smith were getting a reputation – and a good one!
Learning to Talk and Walk
As a child moves from infancy to childhood, so did the company by taking on larger and more complex projects. Also, as the business developed, the need for suitable premises became apparent and after operating between two locations in the early years (Coronation Street, North Perth as the office and Gibson Street, Mt Pleasant as a southern workshop and depot), the Company acquired a site in Cambridge Street, Leederville. The premises, consisting of an old single storey house, were used for several years before a purpose built, three level office and workshop were constructed.
This served as the Everett Smith premises for more than 10 years, during which time the company grew from a small commercial entity into a well-respected, medium size business, competing with large local and national companies.
It was during those early years that enduring relationships were formed with clients who were the emerging leaders in their field such as Multiplex (now Brookfield Multiplex), Civil and Civic (now Lendlease), Woolworths, TVW7 and WA Newspapers. These long standing relationships have stood the test of time and the mutual respect and ongoing business relationship continues on today.
Always with an eye for the future, land was acquired in Osborne Park in the 1970’s and as the company continued to grow it became increasingly obvious that the company was outgrowing its Leederville premises.
In 1979, planning for more suitable location came to fruition with the construction of purpose built facilities at 26 Sarich Court, Osborne Park and the company moved into that new location in 1981.
The business continued to expand as did the ability to meet the technical challenges posed by the increasingly complex electro-technology demands for commercial buildings, major medical facilities and sophisticated industrial and institutional buildings.
This technical prowess is vindicated by the high regard in which Everett-Smith is held by respected consulting engineers, architects and clients. They recognise Everett-Smith’s outstanding contribution to the successful completion of major project works.
Everett-Smith’s horizons continued to expand in the undertaking of the Hotel Nikko, our first overseas project located in Bali, Indonesia and for which we were awarded the State and National Industry Association Export Awards for the that project.
More long term commercial relationships continued to develop with companies like Westfield, Broad, Perkins, Probuild and Leighton group who recognised our core values of technical and corporate agility to meet their commercial expectations.
By 2006, it became clear that the Sarich Court facility was no longer large enough for the expanded Everett Smith operation so once again, property was acquired, plans were drawn and in 2010 Everett Smith relocated to Howe Street, Osborne Park – our current home and in the last decade since the move, the capacity of the operation has doubled by expanding within the building envelope.
The Recipe for Success
The founders of Everett Smith consider the company culture to be the single most important factor in the success the business has enjoyed over the past 60 years and this has been maintained as an essential attribute for all key management joining the company. Integral to the development of this culture was Terry Long, joining the company in the 1970’s and quickly establishing himself as a diligent and effective leader. He quickly rose to the position of General Manager and joined the board of directors shortly after. His contribution to Everett Smith cannot be expressed in words alone and even in his recent retirement, he remains in high regard with staff and clients alike.
Terry was joined over time by other commendable senior staff and of those, Nick Williams, Peter Kim, Matt Conte, Martin Armstrong, Brad Overington and Shaun Cross are still with the company today.
Further quality staff are evolving and supporting senior management, all of whom continue to contribute to the success of the company, are too numerous to identify singly – but they know who they are and their effort is no less recognised.
Our recipe for success and embraced as our business culture is simply the correct mix of humanity, humility, humour, hubris and high standards.
The Future
By the end of 2015, the founding partners will have “retired” from the day to day operations of the business and each partner’s eldest son will totally operate the business. The new Everett Smith duo, complete with their respective skills and talents, will carry on the business and each, having similar attributes to their fathers, will continue to maintain the business ethos. . The new leadership, with Rod Smith as Managing Director and Graeme Everett as Director responsible for regulatory and technical compliance, are well supported by a young team strong in our common ideals including:
- Respect for human values and fairness.
- Loyalty to supporters.
- Focus on technical and quality excellence.
- Nurturing and delivering client expectations.
- Learning from mistakes.
- Continuing prudent fiscal management.
This short story of Everett Smith cannot conclude without recognition of the love and support of Terry and John’s wives, Esther and Win, who have, since the company’s inception, been involved in every success, every setback and always been there to support them, every step of the way.
Terry and John would also like express their thanks for being blessed with talented children, the loyalty and endeavour of a hard working and supportive core staff and the contribution to the company’s success by great clients and many respected advisors.
Epilogue
It is difficult to condense almost sixty years of operation into mere pages of limited detail; many of the highlights (and some lowlights) are not mentioned. Neither have the humour, camaraderie and special people who remain part of the Everett-Smith. Story been mentioned.
Much of what has been achieved over the past 60 years will endure for many more years to come because the successes Everett-Smith has achieved and the contribution to the growth of Western Australia are of great personal pride to both Terry and John and no words can adequately describe the emotion they feel as the founders of Everett Smith.
Terry Smith (28/03/1943 – 12/01/2024)
John Everett (24/08/1937 – 11/02/2024)