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Tabak Newsletter - August 2026

Retirement of a Tabak Legend

Kevin Kerr (or KK as we know him within Tabak) has been trying to retire for a while now, but it can sometimes be very difficult to make a clean break when you have customers going back over 25 years! KK will largely pull the pin at the end of August 2026 and step back into a well-earned retirement, where he can cycle to his heart’s content and spend more time with his wife, Robyn. He will hopefully remain available for us to pick his brains from time to time about various broking challenges, as there is no such thing as a “straightforward” or “easy” sale in this game.

KK was one of our founding partners, with Tabak in its current format commencing in 2001 in Tauranga. Within the next four years branches opened in Hamilton, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. Many of the people who were instrumental in establishing these branches are still there today, and our nationwide business continues to focus on being the best (not the biggest) brokerage in New Zealand. Tabak could perhaps be called “boutique” in nature, but that hasn’t stopped KK overseeing (as the primary licence holder at Tabak for some years) $1 billion plus in business sale value.

KK was instrumental in implementing many of the systems and processes still used within Tabak and has been a steady guiding hand through Tabak’s initial establishment and growth, consolidation through the GFC and currently as a team of independent but closely aligned business broking offices. I recall my first day “on the job” as one of the first Christchurch team, being inducted into the Tauranga way of doing things, over 21 years ago. I don’t know where the time has gone and it has largely been a pleasure working with both KK and the wider Tabak whanau. I say largely because like any business that has been around for 25+ years there’s always a little scarring on the way through economic cycles and the like – but Tabak has endured and will continue to do so.

Kev also has his own share of scars through some health challenges over the years, but keeps bouncing back and is probably the leanest, fittest Tabak team member, truth be known – despite his venerable age 😊 It’s not often that one gets to eulogise a business comrade and friend when they are still alive & well, so I have great pleasure in wishing KK (and Robyn) many more happy years ahead of them in retirement, and look forward to catching up each time they head south, or we head north.

Damien Fahey; Partner
Tabak Business Sales, Christchurch