78 | Industry links boost growth TruckBuild NZ has five permanent staff and three subcontractors working out of its 1000sqm Nelson workshop. TRANSPORT TruckBuild NZ T T Hugh de Lacy A mid-life switch out of general engineering saw Pete Todd set up a new company, TruckBuild NZ, in Nelson three years ago, specialising in heavy transport engineering, thanks in part to associations previously formed with some major players in the industry. Pete came from a background in truck driving and engineering, which eventually led him to build his own general engineering company, PK Engineering. Then, after 17 years, he sold it in 2020 to local firm Brightwater Engineering, though he continued working there for another year. Being an employee rather than an employer didn’t sit well with Pete, however, so he left that company, and for the next eight months did one-off jobs for a variety of clients out of a small workshop set up at home. He had built crane trucks earlier on for the likes of Waimea and Crane, now Waimea Group, and other transport companies, both local and national. He was able to reach an agreement with Brightwater Engineering and was released from his three years’ restraint on trade, as long as he worked on heavy transport only. So, with a couple of fellow former workers, Pete set up TruckBuild NZ, and the company took off to the degree that it quickly outgrew Pete’s home workshop. Brightwater had taken over PK Engineering’s former premises, but sitting out the front of that was a vacant section on which a property developer agreed to erect a purpose-built workshop and lease it back to TruckBuild NZ. Today, the company has five permanent staff and three subcontractors working out of a 1000sqm workshop. TruckBuild NZ quickly found itself struggling with the workload, especially when Takaka-based Solly’s Transport principal Ed Solly came knocking, wanting him to take over the fabrication and maintenance engineering work for some of his Nelson fleet. “In the first year of business we were swamped with work – it was insane. We had work coming out our ears,” Pete says. The post-Covid recession took the heat out of that demand, and the business is now ticking over more comfortably. “Then we developed a relationship with the global crane and transport company Palfinger as a build partner through its Christchurch branch, and that has been particularly beneficial for us,” Pete says. “They’re in the business of building cranes and crane trucks themselves, but they pass a lot of work on to us for turnkey projects, where we build the crane on to the truck and get it completely ready to be picked up by the owner and put to work. “Palfinger’s a cool company to work for, and along with Waimea Group and Solly’s we’ve got a solid core of repeat clients. “The recession has put the brakes on things a bit, but hopefully there’s a recovery in sight,” he says. “We’re an old-fashioned sort of company with the quality of our work being more important to us than anything – we stand by it 100% – and we’re constantly looking for ways to improve what we do.” • TRUCK PAINTING • PANEL BEATING • INSURANCE SMASH REPAIR • CAR, CARAVAN, BOAT, BUS & MOTORHOMES REPAINTED • EXACT COLOUR MATCHING • PAINT REFINISHING Workshop: 03 544 9933 | Brook Heslop: 021 172 8127 | 7 Fittal St, Richmond info@brooksautopainters.co.nz | www.brooksautopainters.co.nz Proud to supply TruckBuild with all their hydraulic engineering needs. ćXLGSRZHU FR Q] ) " ՍŇՍ ! & ՍŇՍ & ՍŇՍ "$ ՍŇՍ "" ՍŇՍ" !(
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