24 | T T Russell Fredric Community underpins firm’s ethos Services includes earthworks, concrete, surfacing, pavement construction and stabilisation, safety barrier installation, and maintenance. Based in Hawke’s Bay, Tūpore Infrastructure is a company with a big heart that has experienced considerable transformation in recent years. Not the least was a name change late last year which followed the appointment of chief executive Gavin O’Connor mid-2022, followed in February 2023 by having to instantly adapt to help with the cleanup in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. Established by the Russell family as Russell Asphalt in 1973 and led by Chris and Ken Russell, the company was subsequently renamed Russell Roads in 2004 with Chris as its sole owner and becoming a highly successful civil construction business. Russell Roads was bought by Robbie and Michelle Gale in November 2019 after Robbie’s business CPM Concrete merged with it in 2015. Since then Robbie and Michelle have overseen significant expansion, with the addition of an asphalt plant and quarries. Tūpore Infrastructure now employs about 105 staff of whom 80% are Maori. Gavin says this expansion and diversification meant the name Russell Roads no longer accurately reflected the business or its culture and this provided the impetus for a name change. “We went to the staff and said this is what we are contemplating, we’d like to come up with something that better represents us, better represents our people. “The tikanga of our men and women really comes through in the business and ultimately led us to the name [Tūpore] which translates as ‘caring’ or ‘kindness’ and we thought it reflected not only in the work we do, but also we have a charitable arm, the George Foundation trust.” Incredibly, 10% of Tūpore Infrastructure’s profit goes to this trust to be disbursed into the wider community, plus staff benefit from a profit sharing scheme while long-serving employees can be offered company shares. “Ultimately they are the heartbeat of the business, they’re the pulse, and it just gives the energy, the vibe, the direction as a family-oriented, cool place to work.” Tūpore’s culture, capacity and professionalism came to the fore when Cyclone Gabrielle struck. “Some of our staff were personally impacted; a couple lost homes and were evacuated in the dark of the night in the deluge. From a business perspective, overnight it almost just went gangbusters, all hands to the pump to get out and repairs what roads we could, reconnect communities so people could get from school, work or whatever it might be.” Following the first six months, the focus transitioned from aiding the emergency response to more planned and coordinated work. “A good chunk of our work since the cyclone has continued to be work related to it in some form or capacity.” Tūpore’s capacity is considerable. Tūpore Infrastructure Tūpore is currently collaborating? on two New Zealand Transport Agency Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) Alliance projects. TREC was established to deliver much of the recovery and rebuild work needed on the highway and rail networks in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, in conjunction with local businesses and contractors. “Our job is to work with NZTA on State Highway 5. It’s Cyclone Gabrielle response work which is ongoing at the moment, and we’ve got three jobs in Hastings with Hasting District Council (HDC). One of them is a new roundabout in an urban intersection related to a land development. There’s been lot of housing growth and a new sports park built.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Two other current HDC contracts comprise rural pavement road rebuilds and reseals in the Clive area. Civic, government agency and NZTA work forms a large portion of Tūpore’s contracts and it is especially fortuitous to have this type of work during the quieter winter period when work can otherwise be scarce, Gavin says. Tūpore operates its concrete, asphalt and aggregate arms as separate entities. These are significant operations in their own right and this diversity offers many career and training opportunities. As a part of its community focus, during the past 18 months and concurrent with the cyclone recovery, Tūpore has been working closely with the Ministry of Social Development in relation to both formal staff recruitment and in giving people opportunities to people “who may struggle with a formalised recruitment process.” “We must have recruited 15 to 20 people from them over the last 18 months. “I’d say 95% of those have no infrastructure experience previous, but we’ve just created a pathway for them into the business and then put them within established crews to give them the support and mentoring they need to hopefully develop into the next leaders.” “We’ve had some really good success in that space.” Commercial & Domestic Tree Maintenance quotes@proarbore.co.nz 0800487332 GET A FREE QUOTE PROUD SUPPORTER OF TUPORE INFRASTRUCTURE
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