54 | CP Contractors CONTRACTING EARTHMOVING CONTRACTORS EARTHMOVINGCONTRACTORS Proudly Supporting CP Contractors Serving the greater Auckland area for over 35 years House Excavations Drilling for footings & retaining walls Dams | Stumping | Roading & Driveways Rock Breaking | Truck & Trailer Hire Metal Supply | Soil Removal Drainage | Specialist Machinery 0800 927 066 www.kblemovers.co.nz Proudly Supporting CP Contractors Contact us at: 021 024 04569 Brodie Walker Mobile: 027 4951 449 Email: brodie@cwe-ltd.co.nz Proud to be associated with CP Contractors Domestic • Commercial Electrical Stop juggling contractors! Drainage | Plumbing | Light Civil & Earthworks We are your single source for essential infrastructure. From a leaky faucet to full site preparation, we handle the dirty work so you don’t have to. YOUR FOUNDATION, FIXED. 021 0526 124 carl@cpcontractors.co.nz Client satisfaction ensures repeat business CP Contractors, today, is a two-man operation with its own 4x4 tip-truck and two Hitachi diggers, a 1.8 tonne and a 5-tonne. T T Hugh de Lacy “We mainly do residential drainage and light civil work – small excavations, driveways and the like – and about 20% of our work is plumbing for private builders.” Launching out with his own company just before the Covid pandemic struck was an exercise in survival for Carl Smith and his Kumeu, Auckland-based plumbing and drainlaying business, CP Contractors. But survive he did – even thriving in an economic atmosphere that’s been less than kind to start-up businesses over the last halfdecade. CP Contractors, today, is a two-man operation with its own 4x4 tip-truck and two Hitachi diggers, a 1.8 tonne and a 5-tonne, and the company has never had less than a steady stream of work since it started. “I particularly like Hitachi machinery, to the extent that their signature orange appears on my business card,” Carl says. “We mainly do residential drainage and light civil work – small excavations, driveways and the like – and about 20% of our work is plumbing for private builders. “We’ve built up an extensive clientele of builders and contractors across the residential development sector, and, as is the case with any firm that puts client satisfaction at the head of its values list, we benefit hugely from repeat business.” Carl started out in the construction business by completing plumbing and drainage apprenticeships, then carrying on to work for a further 12 years for a West Auckland company before deciding to go out on his own. His plant initially comprised “myself and a spade,” so he operated hired gear until he had built up the resources to buy his own. “Having machinery adds another string to the plumbing and drainlaying bow, allowing us to undertake the sort of excavations you need for foundation walls and piling. “We operate throughout the Auckland area, from South Auckland and the CBD to Mangawhai and Warkworth – we’ve got two jobs on the go in Warkworth at the moment. “Our work’s pretty varied and involves numerous residential development projects, such as retaining walls and excavations for a repeat builder client, and the plumbing and drainage on a new architecturally designed home here in Kumeu. “After that we’ve got a couple of Hynds septic tanks to install on rural sites near here.” Carl says he would be lying if he reckoned he had heaps of work on now, or since he started CP Contractors, “but it’s always been okay, always steady”. “We had a couple of days one time when we worked at home, but we’ve never had to scratch our heads wondering where the next job is coming from,” he says. Carl is greatly helped in his business by his wife Shannon, an assets administration manager with a large building firm. “She’s not involved in the day-to-day running of CP Contractors but, as you could imagine, her accounting skills and her perspective as an accountant are simply invaluable.” Carl has his eye out for opportunities to grow CP Contractors, and will snap them up if they appear, but with the national economy still mired in stagnation rather than growth, “They’re not popping up everywhere,” he says.
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