| 59 MINING Birchfield Energy & Resources BCML operates two West Coast opencast coalmines — Giles Creek near Reefton and Strongman just out of Greymouth. Part of the Birchfield Energy & Resources fleet. West Coasters are renowned for the lasting relationships forged with their clients and that, along with a skilled knowledge and e icient on-site service, is the heart of Colin J Holmes Contracting Ltd. With an engineering background and keen interesting in hydraulics Colin Holmes started his business 30 years ago as a one-man operation when he saw a need for an independent hydraulics service. “I knew full well it wouldn’t just be hydraulic work that I would be doing,” says Colin. “I set a mobile workshop up capable of doing anything on-site, targeting the forestry industry and mining. I could go on site and basically ix anything frommechanical servicing to engineering. That established quite a good client base.” Ten years ago the business took a leap forward when Colin’s two sons joined him. Eldest son Taylor has an engineering background and Callan has a mechanical background. While Callan is permanently contracted to Birch ield Coal Mines maintaining the trucks, Taylor works along side his father. “That has really transformed the business, giving the opportunity to go a bit further a ield and provide a broader service,” says Colin. “We’re based in Paroa, just south of Greymouth and mainly operate from Reefton right through to Ross, with a bit of work Keeping the machinery going outside that area. Our vehicles are fully equipped with parts. Our mainstay customer sectors would be coal mining and the contractors associated with that, civil contracting and farming.” Two years ago Colin built a large purpose-built workshop, with a hydraulic bay, engineering bay and machine shop, enabling a range of larger projects to be undertaken to complement the mobile service. “Our work encompasses everything from hydraulic replacement, repairs and maintenance right through to ground up rebuilds on trucks and trailer units and other machinery. We’re totally independent and have established a good base of componentry suppliers over the years. We can source the best product to do the repair. Many problems are really quite complicated but between Taylor and me we have a really good skill set to problem solve, identify issues and repair them. That skill set is quite a valuable asset now. Over the last year or so we’ve started doing a lot more repair work because of componentry supply chain issues. Anything we cannot do we will subcontract out and coordinate.” Colin says appreciating the urgency of getting their clients operational has been the whole secret to the company’s success. “It’s providing that skilled knowledge and e icient on-site service. When our clients’ machinery is broken they just want to get going.”
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