| 81 T T Hugh de Lacy Plenty of quality concrete in Cambridge The Italian-made SIMEM plant came into full production in March of this year. Precision Ready Mix CONTRACTING The most technologically advanced concrete-mixing plant in the country is in full production at Cambridge’s Precision Ready-Mix’s site on Hautapu Road, and the Waikato town is back to being served by two ready-mix plants. The Cambridge construction market has historically supported two plants so, when it was reduced to one a few years ago, a group of local businessmen got together to launch a second. Up until September of last year, the new business comprised just a blank 5000sqm site, but then work started on the installation of a newly imported Italian-made SIMEM plant that came into full production in March of this year. And that was just part of the investment by the group of co-owners. They also put together a brand-new fleet of eight six-wheeler concrete trucks, and are awaiting the delivery of four new eight-wheelers. “The mixer incorporates the latest wetbatch technology, with the concrete not being mixed in the bowl of the truck, but being premixed in the plant before entering the bowl, thus providing superior consistency and performance in the concrete itself,” says Precision Ready-Mix general manager Benjamin Sinclair. “The plant has the capacity to produce 110 cubic metres of concrete an hour, though our actual demand in the short to medium term is in the region of 70 to 75 tonnes an hour. “This means we’ve got plenty of spare capacity when the Cambridge construction market heats up again – it’s pretty flat now. “Another technologically advanced feature of our service is every truck being fitted with the Verifi system, which is a slump- and temperature-control system that keeps the concrete at the perfect slump and temperature for the customer,” Benjamin says. Precision Ready-Mix operates within about a 70km radius of Cambridge, but the Verifi technology gives it the capacity to deliver further afield with no loss in quality. “What it means is that the concrete is in perfect condition when it arrives at the site,” he says. The company gets its aggregate supplies from Winstones’ Whitewall quarry about 10km from Cambridge, and J Swamp’s Taotaoroa quarry 15km away. It gets its sand from a Highgate Trust, which operates a sand quarry just a few kilometres away. Benjamin is from a farming and rural contracting background, and he was selling stock-feeds from a site next door to Precision Ready-Mix’s new one when the directors tapped him for the general manager’s role with the new company, seeing it through its establishment phase. The new trucks are all Japanese-made Hinos. “We chose Hino trucks for the fleet because they’re easy to drive, practical, comfortable, very good-looking, and the drivers love them,” Benjamin says. “The Cambridge construction market is soft at the moment, but we’re gearing up for a recovery that’s just round the corner – hence the four new eight-wheelers. “There are lots of sections for sale and new subdivisions going in, and we’re able to service both the residential and the commercial markets, as well as rural and civil work. We do everything,” he says. 0274107770 admin@tclearthworks.co.nz TCL Earthworks Partnering with Precision Ready Mix to meet their aggregate and cartage requirements
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