About
Started here at 17. Bought it in 2019.
The shop has been on the books since March 2000. Adam came on as a teenage apprentice, qualified, made foreman, did a stretch overseas, and bought it back from Tony Fabish in 2019. Five apprentices on the floor right now.
From apprentice to owner
Tony Fabish opened this shop in March 2000. Two years later Adam Devoy walked in for a Year 12 work-experience placement and never really left. He signed up to MITO, finished his apprenticeship, and was promoted to foreman by his mid-twenties.
After a few years overseas picking up methods he could not get in Te Awamutu, Adam came home and bought Tony out in January 2019. The shop kept the trade, the customer base, and most of the team, but the name on the door changed.
In February 2026 we moved into the new building on Riverhurst Drive. Bigger booth, bigger floor, and room to train.
The way it happened
The shop is older than the brand.
A few dates that matter, in plain order.
Tony Fabish Panelworks Ltd.
Tony incorporates the business on 30 March 2000 at the original Bond Road premises. Co# 1027190, NZBN 9429037301125. Same company number still trading under the new name.
Adam starts at 17.
Year-12 work-experience placement turns into a MITO apprenticeship. Tony takes him on full-time.
Qualified.
Adam finishes the apprenticeship. Stays at the shop.
Foreman.
Promoted, running the floor.
A stretch abroad.
Picked up methods, ideas, and a few opinions about how this shop could run.
Adam buys it.
Tony Fabish Panelworks Ltd renamed Devoy Panelworks. Same company number, same crew, same trade, new name on the door.
New building on Riverhurst Drive.
Charcoal corrugated cladding, cedar feature walls, downdraft booth, bigger floor. The drone shot you have seen across this site was taken the week we moved in. Most of the old site still cites the old address, this is the actual current one: 3 Riverhurst Drive, Te Awamutu.
Five MITO apprentices coming through.
The reason any trade keeps going is because someone trains the next ones. Adam learned the trade off Tony, and now the shop is putting five through the MITO programme at the same time. They are on the floor every day, supervised, and the work that leaves the shop has a qualified hand on it.
On the floor today
Adam and the apprentices.
Every car gets a qualified tradesman's hands on it.
From year-one to year-four, alongside Adam (qualified 2007). Same way Tony Fabish brought Adam through.