Celebrating 70 years

Established as a family business in 1953, Bates Surfaces celebrates 70 years at Station Road, Penrose – with the site known today as the commercial hub Station205.

In 1953, A J Bates Ltd purchased a bare plot of land at 205 Station Rd in Penrose, to build a factory for its new spray-painting business. Seventy years later, that family business is in its third generation, and the site has expanded into what is now proudly known as Station205.

Arthur Joseph (Snow) Bates was originally a motorcycle mechanic, later training as an automotive painter. He soon became one of Auckland’s best – his son Robert remembers him working on Rolls-Royces – but it was after the war, when a customer saw him spraying some panels for kitchens and bathrooms, that the new business really began.

Specialising in panel coatings

That customer, Wally Hotham, became Snow’s silent partner in A J Bates, which now needed premises. Penrose was ideal – land was still cheap, and it was close to the site of the New Zealand Forest Products plant which would supply the boards that they would coat for kitchen and bathroom linings.

Snow’s skill and vision saw the business expand rapidly. Later, James Hardie, also located in Penrose, became an A J Bates customer, offering the market its fibre cement boards in a range of finishes.

Over the years, Bates developed innovative coatings, both for their own products and for other suppliers. Snow had the first two buildings constructed for A J Bates and added two adjoining sites as they became available. The business needed the additional manufacturing and warehousing facilities to keep up with production. He also bought out Hotham and brought his sons Robert, and then Ronald, on board to make it a true family business.

New tech shrinks footprint

When Snow Bates passed away in 1984, all four of his children took positions on the board. Robert took over as Managing Director, and Bates acquired yet more land, doubling the site to the size it is today.

In 2015 the company, now run by Snow’s grandson Andre Bates, was renamed Bates Surface Solutions, which is New Zealand’s largest coatings applicator for building panel products, using clean and odourless UV-curing technology. With the ever-improving technologies requiring less and less space, they turned the old warehousing into modern commercial factories to let to other local businesses, and Station205 was born.

Creating Station205

For the past five years Andrew Nixon, another of Snow’s grandsons, has developed Station205 into a thriving commercial campus that is home to multiple tenants, with refurbished warehouses, modern services and improved traffic flows through two street frontages.

While in the 1950s Penrose was still largely undeveloped, today it is one of Auckland’s prime industrial and transport hubs, home to industry of all types. For both Bates Surfaces and Station205 tenants, Snow Bates’ decision 70 years ago to locate his business in Penrose was a sound strategic decision – keeping the businesses on site connected and efficient within Auckland’s industrial and construction supply chain.

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To find out more about warehouses and yards for lease at Station205, contact andrew@station205.nz.