68 | Quirky name not the only point of difference Pink Beluga Civil has a team of 14, including machine operators, a couple of carpenters and labourers. CIVIL Pink Beluga Civil T T Virginia Wright “Some of the guys have been driving for 40 years, most are over 10. We’re all about teamwork, working together as a cohesive team.” Since starting the company in early 2020 with four other shareholders, general manager of Pink Beluga Civil, Glenn Darrah, has been continually fielding questions about the name. When it was under discussion, Glenn’s suggestions leant towards conventional three-letter acronyms, but two of his fellow shareholders nicknames were Pinkie and Beluga and it was decided that they should go for a point of difference in what is still a traditional world. While there’s no pink machinery to be seen, they do have pink business cards with the name Pink Beluga Civil front and centre. The Auckland-based earthmoving specialist contracting company started with three excavators, with Glenn and one other operator driving them. Glenn had started driving excavators on his parents’ dairy farm when he was 10, and he discovered he much preferred machinery to animals. By the time he started the company he had spent nine years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force following a season driving heavy machinery in Western Australia. He had all his WTR (wheels, tracks and rollers) tickets and his love of excavators was still strong. Putting those skills to good use and “happy to be back in the mud digging holes”, Glenn’s first contract involved digging a 13-metre-square hole straight down as part of the $1 million earthworks contract for an apartment building in Central Auckland: no ramp, no access, no easy way to get the 14-tonne excavator back out of the hole. “Luckily, Smith Cranes swapped their crane out for a bigger one than originally planned so we were able to crane it out at the end of the job,” says Glenn. While it’s a fairly standard approach to basement excavation, it was the biggest machine the operator had ever lifted out of a square hole, and it’s still the biggest one Glenn’s ever had lifted out. Five years later, Pink Beluga Civil has a team of 14, including machine operators, a couple of carpenters and labourers. Glenn and his operations manager (also ex-Air Force) Mike Leonard’s shared philosophy around training and growth and upskilling their staff led them to take on three teenagers two years ago. Of the two young men and a woman it was the young woman who stuck with it through the labouring to become a rookie operator of any of the dumpers, rollers and excavators up to 14 tonnes. “We’ve got masses of experience in the team as well. Some of the guys have been driving for 40 years, most are over 10. We’re all about teamwork, working together as a cohesive team,” says Glenn. The contracts now reflect Pink Beluga’s business plan to establish the company as a one-stop-shop taking on virtually everything to do with civil construction: earthworks, retaining, drainage, pavement, services and so on, explains Glenn. “When we were finding our niche in the market our clients were expecting to make one phone call and have the job done. We like to target residential subdivisions, so the client gives us some drawings, we price it and then, apart from the asbestos removal if it includes a demolition, we do everything, including the common concrete access-way, before handing it over to the builders ready to build however many houses.” With the residential market only just picking up after some quiet years, Pink Beluga Civil has been doing a lot of commercial work, including car parks and commercial building sites, and a lot of retaining work, which has been coming through as people settle their claims after Cyclone Gabrielle. They will go where the work is, and are looking at jobs as far afield as Queenstown. Meanwhile, they are busy stabilising a hillside in order to make it safe for the owners of the two properties on top to finally feel secure. • Truck Hire • Truck Sales • Equipment Rental Proudly supporting PinkBeluga Civil quotes@cvh.co.nz 0800 284 4473 Key services: Earthworks Detailed excavation and foundations Retaining Roading Carparks Hardscaping Concrete and hotmix
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