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Ko TROW Group mātou | We are TROW Group
TROW is one of Aotearoa and the Pacific’s largest waste recovery service providers.

Weaving commercial and residential deconstruction with broader outcomes that uplift communities while protecting Papatūānuku

29/10/2026

Fernhill Track Improvement | Project Update 🌱

Over the past few weeks, we've seen this project come together piece by piece. Our builders have been hard at work constructing new walkways and pathways, while our own team has been getting stuck into the landscaping, ground preparation and everything in between.

One of the best parts of projects like this is acknowledging the people behind the work. Everyone knows TROW for deconstruction, but our team brings so much more than that. Many of our crew came to us with experience in different trades, and seeing them pass those skills on to the next generation has been something pretty special. 🤝

Watching our young guns put their hands up, step outside their usual roles and learn from the people around them is a real highlight. We're proud to have a team that's willing to share their knowledge, back one another and keep growing together.

We're getting close to the finish line now, and we can't wait to show you the finished track once it's complete! ✅

28/10/2026

STAFF SPOTLIGHT | LEIGHTON VAREA🌿

Born and raised in West Auckland, Leighton is a Samoan and Fijian wahine toa, with family roots in the villages of Lefaga, Faleaseela and Vailoa Faleata. Family has always been central to who she is, and one of her favourite childhood memories is squeezing into one big van for long beach trips together, with all the snacks somehow disappearing before they even arrived! 🏖️

In early 2025, Leighton joined our TROW whanau as a Recycling Administrator. Leighton has played a pivotal role in bringing our circular economy operations full circle. While our teams work on-site to carefully recover materials from buildings, Leighton has been instrumental in making sure those resources complete their journey back into the community, finding new homes through reuse and resale rather than going to waste. Her work has helped turn the materials we save into tangible value, generating revenue for TROW while giving recovered resources another chance to serve a purpose. ♻️

Since starting at TROW, one of the biggest lessons Leighton has learnt is adaptability. In an industry where no two days are the same, she’s learnt to stay organised, adjust to changing priorities and take on new challenges as they come. That willingness to learn and step outside her comfort zone has helped her grow in her role and continues to support her development within the business.

Her time at TROW has also become a pathway for her own career development. Before joining us, Leighton studied towards a Bachelor of Engineering at AUT and gained hands-on experience in the construction industry with companies such as Cassidy Construction and Hawkins. Bringing that foundation into TROW, she has continued to learn, adapt and grow. Now, she’s preparing to take the next step into our Project Team, moving into project delivery and building on the knowledge and experience she’s gained along the way. ✅

Looking ahead, Leighton is keen to keep improving how salvaged materials are recycled and reused across TROW projects, finding more opportunities to give these resources a meaningful second life. As she moves into the Project Team, we're excited to see her bring that same initiative and commitment into a new stage of her career.

Leighton, congratulations on this next step in your TROW journey! Your hard work has made a real difference to our resource recovery operations, helping ensure the materials we save on-site go on to benefit others in the community. We're incredibly proud of everything you've contributed since joining us and the growth you've shown along the way. We look forward to seeing you take on new challenges, continue developing your skills and build on everything you've achieved so far.

Fa'afetai lava to the QUEEN of our TROW ReStore! Check out her awesome mahi here: www.trowrestore.com. 💚

22/10/2026

The Whare, Monte Cecilia Park 🏡

It's always important to understand the history of a building before beginning work, and The Whare at Monte Cecilia Park has quite a rich one behind it.

Dating back to the early 1900s, the building was relocated from St John's College to The Pah in 1902, when the site became home to St John's Collegiate School. It originally housed a library, a master's room, three dormitories and a bathroom, and has seen many changes over the years.

We're grateful to have the opportunity to work on this project and understand the importance of taking care with a building that has been part of this site's history for so long.

Our team is now underway with the deconstruction, carefully working through the building in stages. Alongside the physical work, we're working with the Council-appointed heritage architect to record important features and recover suitable historic timber and other materials for reuse through Auckland Council Waste Solutions' community recycling project.

There's a lot to consider throughout this process, from the building's heritage features to the surrounding park and notable trees. We're taking the time to approach the work carefully, with the aim of recovering as much as we can while respecting the history of the site.

Swipe through to see some of The Whare's earlier days alongside what the building looks like today, as our team works through the next stage of its story.

We'll keep sharing our progress as the project continues.

20/10/2026

Last week, TROW Group Managing Director and CEO Saia Latu joined a thought-provoking panel at The Reality of Everything: Tāmaki Makaurau, hosted by the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) in partnership with The Reality of Everything.

Bringing together diverse perspectives, the event explored some of the complex, interconnected challenges shaping our world and invited people to question the systems, assumptions and ways of thinking that have brought us to where we are today. 🌿

As a panellist, Saia contributed his perspective on how these conversations intersect with our mahi at TROW Group, from decolonising waste systems and challenging conventional approaches to resource recovery, to reimagining how we build a more circular economy that serves our communities and the environment.

For us, this means questioning the status quo, recognising the value in what has traditionally been discarded, and creating space for Māori and Pasifika-led approaches to shape a more equitable and regenerative future. 💚

Thank you to SBN and The Reality of Everything for creating space for these important conversations and bringing people together to challenge established thinking by highlighting what meaningful change could look like.

13/10/2026

A different kind of project for TROW 🌿

We’re around halfway through our Fernhill Informal Track Upgrade at Albany Park, where our team is putting their skills to work in a different environment.

Rather than deconstructing a building, this project focuses on improving an existing track through the bush, making it safer, more stable and easier to navigate while retaining the natural character of the surrounding area. 🌱

So far, our team has been preparing and clearing sections of the track, widening the path where possible and getting areas ready for the next stages of work. We’ve also adopted the idea from our recent Papatoetoe project to Fernhill, adapting our purpose-built chute to help move tools and equipment beneath the bridge to reduce the need for our crew to carry materials over slippery, uneven ground, making the work safer and more efficient.

Working in this environment brings its own challenges, from difficult terrain to finding practical ways to move equipment around the site. It takes careful planning, innovative thinking and a strong focus on health and safety at every stage. 🚧

Projects like Fernhill show the versatility of our team and the range of work we can deliver. From deconstruction and resource recovery to civil works, maintenance and track upgrades, we bring the same focus on quality, safety and getting the job done right.

We look forward to sharing more progress as the upgrade continues.

05/10/2026

Imagine taking a photo with your son after winning a Super League Grand Final, never knowing that years later, you’d recreate that exact same photo after watching him win his very own.

Well, for our very own Super League great Joe Vagana, that’s exactly what happened.

At the final hour, Joe boarded one of the last flights leaving New Zealand for England to be there for his son Isaiah as he lined up for the 2026 Super League Grand Final with Wakefield Trinity.

Joe knows exactly what it means to play on that stage. During his time with the Bradford Bulls, he won three Super League Premierships in 2001, 2003 and 2005, alongside the 2003 Challenge Cup and three World Club Challenges in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Seven major titles across an incredible period of his career.

So watching Isaiah go out and do it for himself, and then seeing Wakefield lift the trophy, must have been a pretty special moment for Joe and the whole Vagana whānau.

And what makes it even better is THE photo.

After Isaiah’s win, Joe and his son recreated the same photo Joe took with Isaiah years ago after one of his own Grand Final wins with Bradford. Same dad, same son, same celebration, just many years and a whole lot of rugby in between.

It’s hard to imagine what that moment must have felt like for Joe. To have spent years of his life chasing those very moments himself, to then stand amongst the crowd watching his son experience it, we can only imagine the pride that flooded the stands that day.

For us at TROW, we couldn’t be prouder to see one of our own sharing such a huge moment with his whānau.

Congratulations Isaiah. What a way to start your Super League legacy.

And Joe, we reckon you’ve got a bit of competition now… we can’t wait to watch Isaiah chase down, and hopefully one day surpass, his dad’s three Super League Grand Final wins. 🏆🏆🏆

01/10/2026

It’s a big weekend coming up for rugby league, with the NRL and Super League Grand Finals both taking place.

For us here at TROW, we’ll have a little extra interest in the Super League game, with our former Health, Safety & Compliance apprentice, Isaiah Vagana, heading into the Grand Final with Wakefield Trinity.

Isaiah was part of the TROW whānau before heading over to the UK, so it’s pretty cool seeing him now preparing to play on one of rugby league’s biggest stages.

Wakefield Trinity will take on Warrington Wolves this Saturday, and we’ll be keeping an eye on the game from back here in Aotearoa.

All the best for the weekend, Isaiah. The TROW whānau will be backing you from this side of the world! 🏉

29/09/2026

Just over two years ago, we stood in front of Auckland Council for one of the biggest presentations we had done as a team.

We had pulled together everything we had been working towards, everything we had learnt, built and developed as a business, and shared the mahi we had done leading up to that point. We were hoping to be given the opportunity to sit on the Deconstruction Panel for the Auckland Recovery Office (ARO) Flood Recovery Programme, following the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Not long after, we received the letter confirming that we had been successful and accepted onto the panel. 💚

And honestly, I don’t think anyone could have told us then just how much of a journey we were about to go on.

It has been one of the most rewarding, challenging, warming and eye-opening chapters for our team.

There have been so many different moments throughout this work that have stayed with us. The people we’ve met. The stories we’ve heard. The homes we’ve walked through. The things we’ve found tucked away in cupboards, sheds and corners of properties that were once someone’s home.

We’ve had the privilege of working alongside so many former homeowners whose lives changed forever after losing their homes. Being able to help people retrieve photographs, personal belongings, little keepsakes and memories from those properties has been something that has meant a lot to our team. 🏠

Sometimes it has been something small that we’ve managed to find and return, but you quickly realise that it isn’t really about the item itself. It’s what that item means to the person standing in front of you.

That part of the mahi has probably been one of the biggest things we’ve taken away from this programme.

It has also challenged us to look differently at what deconstruction can be.

We’ve always cared about how we take buildings apart and what happens to the materials afterwards, but this work has shown us another side of it too, more than ever before.

When you’re working with homes that people have lost through circumstances completely outside of their control, there is a different level of care that has to sit behind the work. 🤝

The ARO journey is still happening, and we’re still learning from it every day.

However, during September, we took a little time to look back and pull together the recovery and waste diversion numbers from the work we’ve completed so far across the programme, to share with you. 📊

It was actually pretty special to sit down and see it all in one place.

All the homes. All the materials. All the tonnes that were recovered, reused, recycled and diverted from landfill where possible.

Not because the numbers tell the whole story, they definitely don’t, but because they give us another way to see just how much has happened over the past two years.

And there’s still plenty more to come. 🌱

27/09/2026

These materials were sourced directly from our Mt Roskill site and are now getting a second life through some awesome local mahi.

Love seeing materials stay in use and support other projects in our community.

Awesome mahi team! 👏

24/09/2026

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve shared a little insight into what’s happening on the ground here at TROW Group 🌱

So, here’s a quick look at one of our current sites in Mt Roskill, where the team is about 60–70% of the way through the deconstruction.

What we’ve really loved seeing on this one is the care the team are putting into the job. From handling materials with care, to properly sorting for the absolute best result for reuse - it's such a privilege to witness!

And that’s happening right across Auckland at the moment. 💥

Our crews are out working across South Auckland, Central Auckland, the North Shore and back out here in West Auckland, putting in the hard yards on site and keeping materials moving through the right recovery and reuse pathways.

There’s still plenty more to come from this site, so stay locked into our socials as we share more from the ground. 👀

Address

34a Airdrie, Road Ranui
Auckland
0640

Website

http://trowgroup.co.nz/, https://mailchi.mp/84d38f47af60/trow-bi-monthly-panui-jan-feb-13851156, http://www.trowrestore.

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