Business South June 2021

| 87 BUILDING Otago - ICON Interior Construction Interior fit-out experts making it happen T Kelly Deeks ICON has recently completed the interior of the Otago University’s redeveloped dental teaching complex. Rondo New Zealand provides a bespoke approach to projects, with the ability to efficiently manufacture standard products in custom lengths minimising product wastage and cutting on-site. These manufacturing capabilities also allows Rondo to manufacture custom sections to suit specific project design parameters. Rondo has an ongoing partnership with ICON throughout the Otago and Southland region, as highlighted on the recently completed Dental School, Music School and Halls of Residence projects. These projects utilised a variety of Rondo Ceiling, Bulkhead, Partition and Soffit Systems to meet the required Project Specific Seismic, Wind and Gravity criteria. www.rondo.co.nz/NZmade PLACEMAKERS DUNEDIN & MOSGIEL PLACEMAKERSDUNEDIN & MOSGIEL 86 PORTSMOUTH DRIVE & 34 CARNCROSS ST (03) 466 4617 PROUDLY SUPPORTING ICON INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION O ne team providing all interior construc- tion solutions has been a sought-after model for a growing base of residen- tial, commercial, and clinical customers in Otago and Southland, where ICON Interior Construction is supporting the construction industry with all the trades and experience needed to manage and complete any interior fit-out project. Rodney Heller, Michael Cooper, and Arran Walker were three boys from Gore when they headed to the UK in 2004 and got into interior fitout. For 10 years they worked together in large scale commercial construction, then when they started to have families, they all packed up and moved back home, settling in Dunedin. Lacking in the Dunedin market at the time was any one contractor who could provide all interior solutions in one package, rather than using multiple subcontractors for internal wall installation, insulation, gib fixing, plastering, seismic bracing, and suspended ceilings. Having undertaken all roles in interior fitout, Rodney, Michael, and Arran knew they could fill this gap and ICON Interior Construction was formed in 2017. In just four short years, ICON has grown from the three directors trying to prove them- selves on the tools, to a massive team of 40 staff and about as many again working for the firm as full-time contractors, with Otago and Southland’s leading construction companies coming directly to ICON for pricing. ICON has recently completed the interior of the Otago University’s redeveloped dental teaching complex, initially walking into an empty shell of a building and providing internal walls, insulation, gib lining, tiling, and suspended ceilings. ICON has now moved on to the new 4.5 star, eight-storey Langlands Hotel in Inver- cargill, providing steel stud internal walls for 80 guest rooms and multiple meeting, dining, and function spaces, as well as plasterboard linings and suspended ceilings. The Covid construction market happened with an explosion of work for ICON, from May to November last year. Over Christmas, the majority of ICON’s work has typically been at Otago University, but Covid put the brakes on in the education sector. Still ICON enjoyed a steady summer, and coming back after Christmas, developers’ con- fidence had returned and the future is looking bright. “This coming June/July, which is usually our quietest period, is going to be our busiest since 2017,” Rodney says. While the scale of the ICON and its large labour force allows the company to deliver a fast and reliable service and reduce delivery times for its customers, the ICON team is still growing. Rodney says the labour shortage has ICON constantly advertising for more people and not even getting responses. “Everyone is fight- ing over the same labour force, and everyone is offering more and more money,” he says. “We’re getting a lot of young people trained up, we’ve got 11 apprentices at the moment, and once the borders open, people are going to want to come here because New Zealand is safe, and there is going to be a heap of work for people in the construction sector.”