Thompson Electrical Celebrate 30 Years

A lot has changed at Thompson Electrical since Kevin Thompson began his ‘one man band’ operation from Inkerman Street, Renwick in 1985. Mind you, a lot has stayed the same too. Always supported by his wife Faye, the couple have built the business up to offer full electrical system installation and maintenance services Marlborough-wide, but it is also still fundamentally a family operation.

Five years ago, Kevin and Faye’s Son Richard & Daughter in law Mary-Jane bought half shares in the business, with Richard now serving as General Manager and daughter Sally leading the front office as customers’ first point of contact.

These days Kevin enjoys being ‘one of the boys’ on the tools, and Faye continues to play an important role in administration support for Thompson Electrical.

The Thompson Electrical reputation for offering the ultimate in dependable and knowledgeable electrical services was established early on. The Thompsons worked with many local builders in the area; particularly the retired Bob O’Malley and Mike Wightwick, now Managing Director of GJ Gardner Homes Marlborough, and a loyal customer base began to be established.

Kevin hired his first apprentice, his nephew, straight from school in 1990. Training Apprentices is very important to Kevin, and believes we should always have them coming through. Their latest apprentice has just completed his training which coincides with their 30th birthday.

Thompson Electrical has trained fourteen apprentices over their 30 years, one of whom was Richard, who came into the business to train in 1999. Of course, Richard had a great understanding already of what the job entailed, he often travelled with his father to jobs as a child, and was famous for finding good hidey-holes, such as a cupboard or car boot, to jump out of and startle people!

Thompson Electrical moved from the home garage in 1999 to their current commercial premises at Uxbridge Street. Working from home had its benefits but as the business continued to grow, a move had to be made.

The new office has undergone a few growth spurts over 15 years, but it was just one room with a workshop in those early days. Sally came on board 13 years ago and in time an expansion into more offices was made.

With Renwick’s growing reputation as the heart of Marlborough wine country, Thompson Electrical have gained plenty of experience building and maintaining the large electrical systems wineries require. They have been working with Whitehaven since 1999, and Saint Clair since 2004, helping these now famous Marlborough brands establish their operations.

They have also completed countless residential home projects this century for various builders, including Mike and his team at GJ Gardner Homes, as well as local builder David Wraight, and enjoy working with various similar local family businesses, like the Adcock’s at the Renwick Meat Market and the Newman’s at Newman Graphics, to name just a couple.


Covering anything from domestic repairs, new home installations and re-wiring older homes, to winery systems installation and maintenance and other large commercial jobs, Thompson Electrical are all-rounders on the Marlborough electrical scene. They offer premium Fujitsu heat pumps with installation and maintenance services, as well as Hotwire under tile heating, Smartvent positive and balanced air pressure systems, air conditioning split systems and more.

"One of our strengths is that we cover all bases,” Richard explains, “we are always keen to expand our customer base, especially within our local community, builders and other large commercial or industrial customers. I recently counted the amount of experience amongst our technicians as totalling over 150 years, so there is very little our team haven’t seen or done before. Dad has 40 plus years of experience in the industry, and David, who is also an electrical inspector and very clued up has more than 30 years himself. Bill has over 45 years and I’m getting up to that 20 year mark soon too. We are very lucky with our staff really; long-serving staff helps to create that family atmosphere that Thompson Electrical has always benefitted from.”

With the plan to keep the business growing and expanding, new customers to Thompson Electrical will first make contact with Sally at the front desk.

“I love working here because it is all about the contact with people. I think customer service is one of the most important parts of my job” Sally says, “I love helping people, even if it’s just talking them through small problems on the phone which might save them.  No job is too small. Both our parents have always been very social in our community and we strive to keep that up.”

Thompson Electrical is very proud of the fact that they are a locally owned and operated family business and feel very privileged to be a part of Renwick’s business community.  

Faye adds “We have been really lucky to have had the support from our local customers over the years, because without them we wouldn’t be here. We would like to acknowledge that and say a huge thank you to you all”.

After 30 years building a reputation for excellence in the Marlborough electrical market, as well as becoming a valued member of the Renwick business community, Thompson Electrical are well positioned to continue developing their services and skills into the future, for the benefit of many, diverse Marlborough property owners.