Our Story

Our history

Botica Timber Services Ltd (BTS) is a timber processing plant located in The Concourse West Auckland. We specialize in custom cutting & machining of any species of timber for the wider construction & building industries. We also produce a wide range of standard profiles from weatherboards, skirting boards, decking, flooring and paneling.

BTS is committed to providing the high quality and service that is needed in today's business environment. Our founding Director Ivan Botica always stood by the motto "It's the quality that matters and the service that counts".

With over 50 years of experience passed through this family business. BTS combine specialty timber moulding skills with dependable delivery dates to be your ideal preferred manufacturer.

Tribute – Ivan Botica 1946 - 2011

Upon researching the history of our company and also our customers & suppliers (past and present). I have found many unsung heroes of our timber industry. A very old industry, which has made a huge impact on our very young country. I write this tribute to my father not just as a son but because I consider him as one of those unsung heroes in the industry. From the mid-70s up to 2011 he had dedicated his life improving procedures and inventing techniques that are used internationally within the industry particularly in panel product manufacture and later in solid wood profile manufacture and other finished product lines.

Yugoslavia 1946-1966

Ivan Paul Botica was born in the small coastal village of Racisce on the island of Korcula, Yugoslavia (now known as Croatia today) on the 27th of July 1946. He started life in very humble beginnings post WW2 where days were spent literally putting food on the table and preparing for winter. As a young man he was focused on education and sport and helping his parents make wine, olive oil and fishing, By the time he reached his teenage years he was a qualified cabinet maker who made bedside cabinets for his principal and a chair for his father to take home, in those days that was the highest honour for graduating. He also represented his hometown in soccer and handball. The townsfolk in his village coined the nickname “Sheriff” as he was naturally regarded as a leader and helped people in need.

New Zealand 1966 – 1994

As times were tough in Yugoslavia many teenagers would leave in search of a better life. Many left for America, Australia or New Zealand. What brought my father to New Zealand was his older brother Mate (Matthew, who I’m named after) who came a few years prior. In September 1966 dad made the journey to NZ starting work for Fletcher construction building the Auckland university clock tower and played soccer for blockhouse bay.

In 1967 he brought his first car a Volkswagen beetle, only a few months later he had a big car accident that almost cost him his life on what’s now known as the causeway between Te Atatu and Pt Chevalier on the north-western motorway before it ever had middle barriers. This ended any hope of a soccer career and it took him 2 years to fully recover. During his time in rehabilitation (when he could walk again), he got a job with J.Scott and company, JSC as it’s known today as a general factory hand. Within six months he started making his way up the ladder quickly showing his leadership and skill set.

In 1972 Dads older brother Mate died of cancer aged 33 this devastated dad as that was the only immediate family he had in NZ at the time. I remember dad always saying they would have been the “dream team” in business had they had the opportunity to work together. Through his career there were many mergers and takeovers. The J.Scott panel division was taken over by Henderson and Pollard, which later got taken over by Carter Holt Harvey and merged it into Bestwood that still runs to this day in Wiri.

Over the span of 27 years he was Manufacturing Manager for the Bestwood plant in Auckland as well as the Christchurch plant he had installed in the mid 80s. Among his colleagues he was regarded a hard but fair boss with a good eye for timber and a vast knowledge of machinery and production. He was an executive that would get his hands dirty, a man of many sayings that would always have nicknames for people and a good teacher who had total dedication to his job. As one of his former colleagues simply put it to me “A man of many talents”.

In late 1992 Carter Holt was bought out by an American firm. A big restructure within the company resulted in dad being made redundant in mid-1993. Being involved in veneer melamine pressing and door manufacture for quite a long time dad decided to take a step in a new direction. Setting up his own company in 7 clemway place machining solid timber profiles for the local market. In September 1994 Botica Timber Services Ltd was born.

Botica Timber Services 1994-2011

Botica Timber Services started with humble beginnings, a husband and wife team and a 8x4 Wadkin planer. The Factory at 7 Clemway Place was purpose built by dad in early 1994. The first few years were tough yet coining the motto “It’s the quality that matters and the service that counts” and standing by it saw the business grow acquiring a 42” band re-saw and a Weinig Profimat 22A, our 2nd planer.

As the business was progressing over the years it was faced with a growing noise problem .A  court battle resulted in the relocation of the factory to 419 Rosebank Rd in Avondale during that time dad upgraded both planers, the old Wadkin was replaced with a Weinig U22A and the Profimat was replaced with a Weinig U23. Dad did this relocation in late 1998. The factory was based in Rosebank Rd for three years with a crew of about 7 people.

Dad always had a great drive to pass on his knowledge to the younger generation that being said his team was becoming stronger and in early 2002 he acquired two 50m3 kilns and relocated the factory a 2nd time to our current site at 67 The Concourse Henderson. In the last 9 years of his reign saw much growth within the company developing a good and loyal customer base and strong relationships with companies like Rosenfeld Kidson, The Lumberbank, Timspec, J.Scott, Rimu North Shore and White Cliffs to name a few, these relationships  kept the machines running year after year.

Together with Rosenfeld Kidson we were involved in the construction of the King of Tonga palace and church a job dad took great pride in as there were elements of the job that were difficult to create even elements where we didn’t have the right gear to produce yet dad would always find a way to “modify” something in order to get the job done. We later did a bigger church in the Philippines which, again was a major success.  During those years more machines got introduced such as our sander and thicknesser a 2nd forklift, the dust extraction system was re-designed by dad then built to cater for a bigger output and a 3rd planer was purchased but not yet commissioned.

 It was around this time when I joined the party and helped dad fix machines, learning about timber and business, moulding me into his successor. Dad was first diagnosed with colon cancer late in 2008 we began putting our energy into getting him healthy while our staff kept things ticking over in the workfront. By the third operation in late 2010 the cancer had come back for round 2 more aggressive and our chances were looking pretty slim, family friends and colleagues were absolutely devastated  particularly my mother and I

Dad passed away at home with his family all around him on the 27th March 2011 Aged 64. That April was the worst month of productivity for the history of the company as you can imagine morale was to the floor. What he left for me was purpose, he dedicated a large chunk of his life to his work. Why? He loved helping people achieve their goals, he loved teaching people and watching their success, he loved making things, creating systems to help like-minded people. He loved his family. It was those values that rubbed off on people that worked for him.

Future

Since dad’s death the team and I have got the business firmly back on its feet. Dedicated to carrying on dads legacy. I always enjoyed the industry and the culture of our company. In the last couple of years we have continued to grow acquiring a MVB end-matching machine to provide end matched T&G flooring. I repaired, then commissioned the third planer that dad had brought. We purchased a state of the art in-head profile grinder to keep our quality second to none.

We  are now  a team of 14 strong with 2 shifts to increase our output even further. It’s almost three years since dad passed away and it makes me so proud to write a tribute like this, very fitting since this year is the 20th anniversary since mum and dad began the company. It’s a huge milestone for me and the staff and it’s far from over yet!

"Pokoj vjecni daruj mu gospodine I svjetlost vjecna svjetlila njemu pociva u miri bozjem Amen"