56 | Producing critical components We Can has established itself as a highly versatile provider of engineering solutions not found anywhere else in the country. We Can Precision Engineering ENGINEERING From a parked caravan in an old potato shed in Hastings in 1971, We Can Precision Engineering has blossomed into a company making critical engineering parts for processors and manufacturers throughout New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and the US. Now with 27 highly qualified staff working in two shifts at its 1200sqm workshop in Wilson Road, Woolwich, Hastings, We Can has established itself as a highly versatile provider of engineering solutions not found anywhere else in the country. The key to this capacity has been the company’s constant investment in new and innovative machinery capable of producing components and machinery products that other engineering companies simply can’t. “We have the capability to make critical engineering parts and assemblies for a wide range of large processors and manufacturers, down to smaller specialist industries,” marketing manager and director, Sally Pike says. “We’ve demonstrated our ability to create OEM replacement parts for many industries more cheaply and faster, sometimes improving the original parts, thanks to our 54 years’ experience.” The company was founded as We Can Engineering by Lindsey Hill, who was from a canning engineering background, and who had a passion for mechanical engineering and problem-solving. Lindsey steered the company into servicing the food production, packaging and canning business, while designing and building machines for local market gardeners and orchardists, such as his 1980s’ Designmark-winning Dodgamo mower, developed for C J Pask’s vineyards. T T Hugh de Lacy We Can still produces parts that Lindsey designed from the 1970s to the 1990s for companies that include Kraft, Heinz, McCain, Hydralada and New Zealand and Australian meat and canning plants. Lindsey retired in 2004, and the company was soon after taken over by Sally and her husband Rickie Pike, who continued working with innovative start-ups and established companies in the food and packaging industries, making precision components, materials and products requiring advanced technology and highly skilled engineers. They renamed the company We Can Precision Engineering to highlight the sophistication of their technology. Rickie died in 2023, and Jason Price became general manager and the face of the company, chosen for his experience in engineering and site-management roles among several of We Can’s long-time clients. The company has enjoyed great loyalty from its staff, the prime example being factory manager Keith McLean, who was the company’s first apprentice and rose through the ranks before retiring last year. Since 2004, We Can has graduated 23 apprentices from its factory floor. Central to the company’s versatility has been its investments over the years in stateof-the-art technology, which includes three five-axis as well as two-, three-, and four-axis milling machines, Okuma multi-tasking millturn machines and a load-assistant robot to help handle materials and finished parts. The EDM wire-cut machine, bought in 2012, is still the only one of its kind in the region, allowing hard, fragile and brittle materials to be cut to shape. WE CAN PRECISION ENGINEERING Special Steels & Metals Limited www.ssm.co.nz SUPPLYING FROM STOCK, PREMIUM SPECIAL STEELS & METALS TO NZ ENGINEERS & MANUFACTURERS Proud to be associated with WE CAN PRECISION ENGINEERING and their continued success in servicing our manufacturing and processing industries
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