Business South November 2021

46 | Hunter Civil Experienced firm spreads its wings T T Kelly Deeks Hunter Civil completes a wide variety of different types of work for clients all over the country. CONTRACTING Providing all fastening, Hardware, Tools & Consumable Items for the Manufacturing, Industrial, Roofing & Construction Industries. Contact us today! 0508 Konnect (566 632) | www.konnectfasteningsystems.co.nz S till servicing its loyal local clients, civil construction and project management firm Hunter Civil is now working New Zealand wide, bringing its technical expertise and innovative mindset to projects of signif- icant scale and complexity and producing exceptional outcomes throughout the country. Hunter Civil general manager Grant Ballinger says after 13 years in business, the Christchurch-based company spread its wings 24 months ago when the Christchurch market became a bit too competitive. A skate park construction project was won and successfully completed on Waiheke Island for Auckland Council, with Hunter Civil having previously collaborated on skate park and action sports facilities throughout the South Island. “We’ve got a bunch of guys who love work- ing with concrete, and taking the time and effort to work the concrete to the required finish,” he says. “Where a skate park might seem like a straightforward construction, they have a degree of technicality in terms of how you sequence them. They are interesting things to build.” Hunter Civil’s considerable experience in skate park construction has now won the firm its second North Island project, with the redevelopment of Masterton Skate Park now underway. Hunter Civil is now working hard to catch up on the time it lost over lockdown, and aims to have the full park open and ready to be enjoyed for summer. Hunter Civil is also now in discussions with a Wellington-based contractor as to how it can help to progress their Wellington infrastruc- ture project. Down south, Hunter Civil is currently work- ing in Nelson on a large sewer pump station, as well as bridge strengthening on the West Coast. “There is a truckload of work out there from what we can see is happening with local authorities and Central Government, and we are reasonably positive about forward work,” Grant says. “We don’t do everything, but we can do a wide variety of different types of work for a wide variety of different clients all over the country. We are adaptable and in that way, we get more business.” Hunter Civil has always adopted a ‘zero-fail- ure’ approach to its projects, leaving no stone unturned in the mission to bring its clients’ visions to life. “Our clients think big, and we do too, tack- ling the projects that other refuse, then doing whatever needs to be done to engineer the best solution.” Grant says Hunter Civil is a ‘brains organi- saton’, being top heavy with one person in the office to every two staff on the ground. The firm takes on those projects with more technical requirements, more engineering, more methodology, more planning. “Intelligent planning comes first in every one of our projects. We look at the life cycle of the project and reverse engineer it, so that the inputs occur when they are supposed to, with the right resource at the right time for the right price. We build a team for every project which has the precise skill set necessary to get the job done.” Like every other Kiwi employer, that skill set is becoming harder and harder to source as Hunter Civil continues to grow. “We used to get quite a lot of migrant and holiday workers who would bring a good work ethic and a good skill set, but that tap has been shut off. When it opens up again, we may see this improve.” Instead of multi-skilled staff, Grant is now bringing in new staff whose strengths lay in one particular area. He has recently added more project managers and more staff on the ground to make a permanent team of 40, and 10 temporary employees. Over summer, Hunter Civil will employ a couple of engineering students from the Uni- versity of Canterbury. “We already have some engineers in this organisation who have been through the ex- ternal placement process, so we understand what they need, and are willing to support them where we can.” Grant says.