48 | Company poised for industry growth Bremca specialises in the engineering and manufacturing of switchboards, control panels, transportable switch rooms and automation services. Bremca T T Hugh de Lacy MANUFACTURING Infrastructure and electrification projects are fuelling growth for the country’s largest switchboard manufacturer, Bremca, which has spread nationwide from its original base in Christchurch over the last 50-odd years. With branches in Invercargill, Dunedin, Hamilton and Auckland, Bremca has a workforce of 225 spread around the country, with 125 based in the Christchurch head office. Bremca specialises in the engineering and manufacturing of switchboards, control panels, transportable switch rooms and automation services, and also supplies medium-voltage switchgear to 36kV – all key elements in electricity generation. Within the group, Bremca Automation operates a standalone business employing 15 engineers across a broad range of disciplines, along with AMPP Industries, another group subsidiary specialising in sheet metal, fabrication and powder coating, with both combining to provide key advantages to Bremca’s market capabilities. “There are large growth areas at the moment in the electrical industry in New Zealand, particularly around council three waters upgrades, electrification and renewable energies so, while we’re busy already, we’re also looking to continue to grow,” says Aaron Ness, Bremca’s general manager for sales and automation. “Electrical safety is also a large part of what we do, with specialist switchboard fire- suppression systems and permanent thermal monitoring for switchboards now being specified and driven by business insurers.” Bremca will serve clients large and small, but among its recent large projects in the South Island have been the Dunedin Hospital Outpatients building, the Christchurch campus redevelopment for the University of Otago, and the horizontal infrastructure project at the NZ Defence Force’s Burnham camp. “For the Outpatients building in Dunedin we have designed and manufactured the switchboards and mechanical services panels, and supplied both with the bus duct system and the 11kV switchgear that supplies power to the site.” Bremca was earlier involved in the $500 million new Acute Services building for Christchurch Hospital, which opened in 2018, all 62,000sqm of it with its 12 new operating theatres and state-of-the-art radiology department. For that job, the biggest government project of the Canterbury post-quake re-build, Bremca supplied the switchboards using fully AS/ NZS 61439-compliant and seismically rated solutions. Significant North Island projects have included the Taranaki Base Hospital redevelopment in New Plymouth, for which it manufactured and supplied both the electrical and mechanical switchboards. The company was founded in 1972 by three partners, Keith Brown, Bill Emms and Don Case, who all contributed the first two letters of their surnames to create the company name. It remains 100% New Zealand owned and operated, and Aaron says Bremca is riding the growing wave of technological change in industry at large, focused on high connectivity and operational safety. “Our ongoing growth and development are based around supporting electrification and renewables on a large scale, including solar farms and energy storage, but also evolving with the electrical demands of new technologies, such as hydrogen production in New Zealand as a major contributor to clean energy,” Aaron says. “Bremca has the engineering, manufacturing and automation capability to meet the growing demands of the industry, and we’re the best-positioned company to do it.” Specialists in All aspects of Sheetmetal Engineering and Powder Coating • 3D Design • Cutting & Folding • Fabrication & Welding • Powder Coating 11 Moncur Place, Christchurch 8024. Ph 03 337 3906 web: ampp.co.nz • Mechanical Assembly • Customised Electrical Enclosures • Switchroom Platforms & Access • Transportable Switchrooms INDUSTRIAL 3 WATERS BUILDING SERVICES Design, Engineering, & Integration Industrial Automation & Control SCADA CMSE® Certified Machinery Safety Experts 11 Moncur Place, Christchurch 8024. Ph 03 332 6370 web: bremca.nz Vision & Motion Control Software Development Building Management Systems Energy Management
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=