Nigel attended South Otago High School and his Young Enterprise Company was Capitalist Enterprises.

My business and working career to date has been somewhat single-mindedly focused on my goal of building a highly successful manufacturing company.

After growing up working weekends in my parents small automotive business, I decided that company ownership was going to be a major part of my future but I wanted to be involved in a business that what not as restrained by any single regional economy.

With a background in engineering Nigel set out to build his own business to design and manufacture gas fire products. He spent several years learning about the industry and its products from all angles, including innovative design, understanding customer requirements and sales and marketing.

Nigel founded Escea, a Dunedin-based company, in 2002 and bought on two business partners with complementary skills to ensure the company’s success. Escea launched two gas fire products nationally in March 2005, following three years of research and development. They funded the research and development during this period by taking on product design contracts for external companies.

Today Escea manufactures what is arguably one of the most innovative gas fire products in the world. The remote-controlled Escea gas fire can be activated by cellphone to warm a house for arrival, automatically adjust to a thermostat setting and can be altered to use either natural gas or LPG. Similarly, a new web-based development enables the Escea fire to be lit remotely at any predetermined time or date.

Heat output, efficiency, styling and aesthetics make Escea products superior to those of competitors. Escea fires are sold throughout via a select group of retailers, achieving 5% marketshare in their first year of sales. Escea employs 28 staff, has a strong new product pipeline and plans to develop several export markets. The company was a finalist in the ‘emerging business category’ in this year’s New Zealand Marketing Awards.