128 | Welshy Contracting Ltd Mark Davies (Welshy), Andrea Davies, Michael Oliver, Megan Davies and Tomos Davies. Ange Davidson Since purchasing a 5.5 tonne Hyundai digger in 2004, Mark Davies, known as Welshy, and his wife Andrea have created a thriving civil and rural contracting business employing 15 people and running an impressive range of heavy machinery. Being open to a challenge and adaptable to change has been the key to company’s growth. Welshy and Andrea launched their business during the dairy conversion boom around Ashburton when there was a shortage of machines to build the infrastructure plus a shortage of people to operate them. When the dairy boom slowed down, laying fibre optic cables took off with Ashburton becoming a training ground for contractors installing fibre cable using mole ploughs, directional drills, and ground penetrating radar (GPR) to locate cables. This kept the company busy for the next seven years. “We laid fibre optic cables in a lot of towns in the South Island. We worked all over, even as far south as Te Anau, “says Welshy. “We also laid cable along the road from Naseby to Clyde Dam. We did a lot of travelling in those years.” Covid certainly changed things and travelling for work wasn’t as straight forward as it had been. As the company pulled back from cable laying, Ashburton’s housing boom took off and Welshy Contracting turned its attention to providing earthworks for local subdivision, Strowan Fields. “It’s the biggest subdivision in Ashburton and just down the road from our yard. We have a very talented and experienced team onsite who are running bulldozers, rollers, and dump trucks. It’s exciting to be a part of something that will benefit the Ashburton community,” says Welshy. “Strowan Fields project is a huge game changer for the company. We’ve always done smaller civil work but being involved in this development is a big step up,” he says. And just when it seems there’s quite enough change happening, in May 2021 it rained more RURAL PEOPLE » Welshy Contracting Ltd Ashburton 233 Alford Forest Road 03 307 7153 Simon Jackson 027 512 7205 TomWells 027 706 4147 NigelDouglas 027 263 9185 Proudly Supporting Welshy Contracting Ltd 106 South St, Ashburton | www.vehiclecompliance.co.nz ADVANCEQUIP PROUD TO SUPPORT AND SUPPLY WELSHY CONTRACTING CASE 2050M BULLDOZER AdvanceQuip is proud to support Welshy Contracting with a number of CASE machines, including the CASE 2050M Bulldozer and CASE CX235Csr Excavator Get in touch today to discover our full range! ADVANCEQUIP
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