At the inland edge of the Canterbury plains, the small farming community of Oxford has 3,800 current residents. One of those is Mike Rutherford and his family who have been living and working in the area for the past 7 years. The Rutherford’s are the proud owners of the local FreshChoice supermarket, which they have recently expanded, due to the closure of their previous Super Value supermarket, which was damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes.
With many disruptions over the past four years, the Christchurch earthquake gave the family the incentive to expand their supermarket, to better aid the community, "We were totally focused on getting open as quickly as possible for the community and in a safe environment," Mike Rutherford said.
After researching what would be the best generator solution for his business, he decided to go with a Kohler generator. The generator needed to be larger than his old one because their new supermarket is now twice the size. There were many aspects of the Kohler that made the purchase choice an easy task for the family such as the generators quietness, due to the soundproofed enclosure and the text alerts they receive when the generator is running low on fuel and when it switches from the main power supply to the generator. To enable almost seamless switching the generator is fitted with an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) ensuring the power is switched to the generator immediately following a power outage.
When choosing a generator for Rutherford’s home, the TDXs’ new Tx range provided a cost effective solution to ensure the household would be kept running in case of an emergency. Rutherford explains that he’d heard that the Kohler brand was reliable and a well-known brand of generator and so when Andrew Smith, TDXs’ South Island generator sales representative suggested an alternative cost effective solution for his home, Rutherford trusted his advice and choose a Tx22. The Tx range of generators are powered with a Perkins engine and are ideally suited to standby operation.
Since the two generators have been installed there has already been two power outages in the area, one was due to high winds and the other a planned outage due to a change of power reticulation.Rutherford explains “They have performed really well and there have been no power interruption problems since being installed”.
It's fair to say that with such a small population, Oxford’s community spirit is alive and well and this was one of the main reasons the Rutherford’s chose to expand their business and purchase their generators.