On Saturday, over 100 people gathered in Dunedin to celebrate Mr Syeb’s 50th anniversary working at the Commercial Vehicle Centre.
Mr Syeb said the company was now akin to family, but on his very first day in 1975 as a 16-year-old “broom-boy”, the sentiments were a bit different.
“I had to scrape paint off a frigging window … I thought, what’s going on here? What have I gotten myself into?”
However, his apprenticeship soon began and 9000 hours later, he was a fully qualified petrol mechanic, even though he has spent most of his time working with diesel vehicles.
Mr Syeb moved up the ranks, becoming a leading hand, then a foreman, before being told he was going to be the service manager.
Eventually in 2002, the company needed another salesman, and they decided Mr Syeb was the man for the job.
“They said, ‘right, we want you to be manager of the branch and sell the trucks’ — I said, ‘well, I don’t know anything about sales, I’m a mechanic, I fix things’.”
Despite reservations, he became a salesman and branch manager — a mere few years later he was the top salesman in the country.
In 2007, the company asked if anyone wanted to buy shares in the company.
Initially Mr Syeb said “no, that’s not my kind of lifestyle”, however he was asked nicely again, and he agreed.
Since then he has been a director of the company.
About eight years ago, Mr Syeb was “yapping” to his wife about buying a wrecked truck — that turned into actually buying a wrecked truck.
He took the truck, dismantled it and took the working parts and used them for repairs.
“Within a month, I got my money back, then second month, I doubled my money. By the third month, I tripled my money, so I thought this was a good idea.”
He pitched the idea of buying a wrecked truck worth $5000 for parts to his boss, who told him “we’re not into wrecking, we’re into selling”.
A month later they bought the motor and gear locks from the same truck for $10,000.
“After that we started buying trucks,” Mr Syeb said.
That was the start of the Dunedin Commercial Vehicle Centre’s Dismantling Branch, which Mr Syeb manages.
He said you did not stay with the same company for 50 years unless they treated you well and you enjoyed what you did.
He said his wife Lesley Syeb had pushed him up the ranks.
At 66, Mr Syeb had considered retirement, but decided he would miss working.
Soon, he was planning to drop down to a couple of days a week, hand in the admin, and spend those days in the workshop.
“I’m not an office worker — I like fixing things.”
