“Aiga is really about honouring our mother and how she viewed people as family even though they weren’t blood related, or you know, they were just strangers” – Father Leatuao.
A Samoan business man is the co-owner of ten Z service stations across West Auckland.
To many, he’s known as ‘Larry’, but behind the name is The Venerable Father Tuala Lavea Toleafoa Tuilimu Lotumali’i Leatuao Larry Tupa’i Lavea – a priest, a family man, an entrepreneur and a community leader who’s built his business around two important Samoan values: aiga (family) and tautua (service).
It’s a philosophy that sits at the heart of his Z franchise, Aiga Energy Limited. Established in 2016, Aiga is built on the belief that family extends far beyond a blood connection.
“Aiga is really about honouring our mother and how she viewed people as family even though they weren’t blood related, or you know, they were just strangers,” Father Leatuao says.
“Everyone to her was just a family member.”
This idea has become part of the culture within Aiga where everyone refers to each other as brother, sister, aunty or uncle, while Father Leatuao is simply not seen as a boss, but as a brother or father figure.
For Saloni Pahwa Bajaj, head of sales, operations and customer management, working under Father Leatuao’s guidance has a familial feel.
“Anytime I give him a call and say, dad, I’m stuck here, I need your help. He’d definitely help us regardless of what’s going [on] in his life,” Saloni says.
“He definitely looks after his people and it’s one of his strongest leadership qualities I believe he has.”
This strong sense of leadership and aiga are values Father Leatuao learned at an early age.
In the late 1970s, he moved with his family from Samoa to Hamilton where they built a life of their own. Originally, he was the only boy and the eldest of three kids, but in the early 1980s, his parents welcomed two younger brothers (who later grew up to form the award-winning singing duo, Adeaze). However, as their family grew, so did their financial hardships.
And in upholding responsibilities often carried by the eldest sibling in many Pasifika households, Father Leatuao stepped up to help his aiga.
At just the age of 9, he found employment at the Underpass Superette Dairy, operated by a man named Jim ‘Papa’ Phillips.
Initially, he offered to mop floors and pick up rubbish so he could earn enough to play some arcade games. But after a few months of working, Papa Phillips noticed he was coming in with the same ripped shoes.
When asked why he didn’t buy himself a new pair, young Leatuao replied, “shoes ain’t gonna take my mind away from what’s going on at home.”
This marked the beginning of a close-knit relationship that led to Papa Phillips meeting the young worker’s parents and learning about their financial struggles. As a result, instead of paying him with money, Papa Phillips provided the family with a box of groceries every week.
“We didn’t need money, we just needed the food,” Father Leatuao says.
“But what Papa Phillips did above giving us food was actually educate me. So, Retail 101 started with Papa Phillips.”
Years later, Father Leatuao carried those lessons into adulthood, especially when he moved up to Auckland. After juggling multiple jobs, he decided to complete his theological degree to fulfill his calling to become a pastor. But instead of remaining and serving in the Methodist Church, Father Leatuao converted to the Anglican faith to serve as a non-stipendiary priest.
Although this was a rewarding accomplishment, finding paid employment proved difficult, resulting in his wife Helen becoming the main income earner.
After facing more than a hundred rejections, Father Leatuao fell into a deep depression but faith and his family gave him the strength to keep going.
“I knew God had something for me. I don’t know what it is but just hang on in there.”
Eventually, he was offered the role of Operations Manager for Western Gas Limited. Owned by John Lambert, this opportunity initiated Father Leatuao’s journey in the fuel industry.
After almost a decade of working under Lambert, he saw an opening to become a Z retailer. But to become one, he needed half a million dollars to operate four sites, which Lambert helped to fund.
“It took me 18 months to repay it back, no interest,” Father Leatuao says.
“So, he’s one of four names that I will never forget in life. So coming back to West Auckland is me trying to repay back John Lambert for his love for me. We still stay connected to this day.”
Now, he’s sharing that love with his community through Aiga and his ten Z service stations. Part of that means understanding the challenges households are facing with the current cost of living.
With the rising cost of fuel, Father Leatuao says it is something that is out of his control, but he is committed to promoting the Z rewards app which gives customers genuine discounts.
“Now of course, if the government decided to give us back its $1.10 or $1.15 that they take out of the fuel, we would have lower fuel prices,” Father Leatuao says.
Alongside fuel, he’s also about tautua and providing people from Samoa who come through the quota scheme with job opportunities and financial education.
One of the first people he hired in 2008 through the scheme is Jeanette Faalogo Bureta, who is now the area operations and admin manager.
“It wasn’t easy coming from Samoa to New Zealand,” Jeanette says.
“I [haven’t] been here before and travelling alone without anyone, it’s been hard. But right now, I’m grateful for this opportunities that I have given by Leatuao.
‘Now, I’m able to provide for my family back in the island and also my kids in here in New Zealand with my husband.”
Through the values of tautua, Aiga is also committed to providing their employees with financial opportunities and pathways to building a more sustainable future.
“They all come here with this one thing that keeps us all together, is a service to our families,” Father Leatuao says.
“What we’ve done is this whole education around budgeting so when they’re employed by us, we go through budgeting [and] financial literacy because those are the killers for our people.”
That financial education extends to having difficult conversations about cultural obligations, especially when it comes to fa’alavelaves – a Samoan cultural practice involving families and communities offering financial support for a significant event or a time of need.
“You don’t give them what they want in Samoa, se e lē alofa (oh, they don’t love us),” Father Leatuao says.
“They really give it to you eh, and you start feeling these emotions and all of a sudden it’s ‘fa’asamoa is not for me’, but actually, you want to stick to the fa’asamoa but you wanna stand firm on how you say no.”
To balance cultural obligations with financial stability, Father Leatuao created a funding pool for all his employees, regardless of race, to use when fa’alavelaves/financial hardships arise.
In addition to his services and mentorship, Father Leatuao is also trialling selling Pasifika products at all his Z stations. The products are sourced from Pacific businesses in the islands, making them more accessible for residents living out west.
As maintenance services manager Seeti Tauala’i recalls, the initiative is already making a change.
In Samoan he said, “I spoke with an elderly lady from Samoa at the Pt Chev Z station and she told me she was very pleased to find Fiji taro and Samoan koko nearby. She used to drive down to South Auckland to get them since that’s where most Pasifika stores are located here in Auckland.”
But what captured the hearts of his community was Father Leatuao’s selfless act of love and tautua for Annie, an elderly Asian woman whose 11-year career at a Mobil petrol station was coming to an end.
Her journey of finding employment was documented on content creator Justus Leaoseve’s Instagram and Tiktok accounts, under the handle @seve.visuals.
The video received multiple reposts and shares, resulting in a huge number of companies offering Annie roles, but none were situated near her home. That was until Father Leatuao reached out, offering Annie a role at the Z Henderson Valley, which was only 5 mins away.
“He messaged me off a TikTok account that has like 20 followers and the profile photo was a steak on a plate and I thought, nah, nah, this is not true,” Justus says.
“He’s like, I’m one of the owners of [Z] and I was like, oh, I’ll give it a chance, to then set up a call, and then came in and straight away on that day, we gave [Annie] the job. That was the first time I actually met Larry.”
And from that first encounter, Justus has gained a new perspective on what is possible for his community.
“I think it’s definitely important to have that representation in terms of Pasifika because it just shows how possible it is. Like I never, ever in my life thought that a service station will be owned by a Polynesian.”
But behind his success and sacrifices at a young age is a personal cost Father Leatuao has never forgotten.
“I lost a lot of time being with mum,” he says.
“I lost a lot of time being with my mum, a lot of time with my siblings, especially my baby brothers. I’m 10 and 9 years older than them.
“If I could go back and speak to my younger self, I would say don’t waste too much of your youth.”
And although he can’t change the past, Father Leatuao’s ultimate goal is for the youth to gain wisdom abroad and return home with insights to uplift their homeland.
“Wouldn’t that be a cool goal,” he says.
“Coming here, being educated, giving back to this community of communities, but then ultimately returning back to where it all started and then giving back to the next generation that might decide that New Zealand is a place where, you know, everything is sweet and, (I) don’t know, I want them to find the sweetness in Samoa.”
