On the day they arrived Charles Tripp of Orari Gorge station was at the port looking for shepherds for his run in South Canterbury.
Observing a fine-looking sheep-dog with the Grant brothers, and assuming that only good shepherds would bring such a dog with them, he hired both men.
A year later William purchased the 1,010-acre Elloughton Grange farm, which lay on the outskirts of Timaru, and lived there for the rest of his life.
In 1885 the South Canterbury Refrigerating Company, in which Grant had a substantial shareholding, began operating from its Smithfield freezing works at Timaru, a short distance from Elloughton Grange.
Filling the need for an on-farm purchaser, Grant was soon buying and supplying large numbers of stock to the works, to the point where he was using its total capacity for four and even five days a week.
For a time a substantial part of the frozen meat leaving Timaru, including at least one entire shipload, was owned by William Grant.
His business acumen and remarkable knowledge of stock made him one of New Zealand's most successful meat operators, and for a long time the country's leading buyer and shipper.