58 | Aotea Electric Southern T T Russell Fredric Wide-ranging skills a valuable asset Aotea Electric Southern is a highly diversified business that has experienced significant growth in recent years. CONTRACTING Established in 1991, Aotea Electric Southern is a highly diversified business that has experienced significant growth, including through strategic acquisitions in recent years. “We’ve actively embraced opportunities to diversify, allowing the business to grow across multiple sectors,” says managing director Warren Taylor. Aotea Electric Southern has great depth and scope across the areas where it operates, which include residential, commercial, healthcare, and industrial for general and specialised electrical and electronics, automation, communications, audio-visual, solar, building compliance and facilities management. Originating in Dunedin, it is part of a nationwide group of more than 29 companies under the Aotea umbrella, with Aotea Electric Southern employing 142 staff. Its core business comprises comprises electrical and communications, in contracting and servicing for anything from small residential work to multi-million projects, with skilled staff members dedicated to each department and speciality, supported by an electrical design team that can take an initial concept through to creating 3D CAD modelling and working drawings. Following the liquidation last year of respected Dunedin audio-vision company Vision AV, Aotea Electric Southern acquired four of its staff. “Their knowledge and expertise has significantly strengthened the audio-visual and automation capabilities of our existing team —skills that are rare and highly valued in the market,” Warren says. In June this year, the company completed acquisitions of Control Focus and EV-lution, which specialised, respectively, in industrial automation and electrical systems, and solar installations, custom battery packs, battery management solutions and electric car conversions, with eight new staff employed. “Control Focus brought specialised industrial expertise and saw joining Aotea as a strategic partnership to support their growth and get to the next level,” Warren says. Another area of significant growth is Aotea’s building compliance and facilities arm. Early this year Aotea was “lucky enough” to win the tender for the Dunedin City Council’s building warrant of fitness and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) contract, which covers all the council’s commercial building portfolio. “With the team’s growth, Aotea Southern is now well-equipped to comfortably tackle a range of jobs, from building warrants of fitness to servicing and project work.” The company’s business development manager David Ford says he used to sum up the company’s breadth and depth by saying, “If it’s got a wire, we can do it”, but he has since had to amend this to include wireless technology as well. “Our staff have a range of skills in different areas, but if they are interested in developing skills for another electrical discipline / area, we will train them on it. This investment in staff development, cross-training and upskilling broadens our capabilities and diversity of services,” he says. This is highlighted by Aotea providing training for a staff member who was interested in specialising in solar, sustainability and the environment. “Now he’s running that department and is very capable,” says David. Twenty of the company’s 142 staff are apprentices, and the scope of its operations offers a huge choice of career paths across the wider group that are not only trade-related. David’s own journey with Aotea Electric Southern has taken him from apprentice to estimator, project manager, general manager, and now business development manager. Aotea Electric Southern has been involved in the Dunedin hospital outpatients build as a subcontractor to the main contractor, Southbase, and the directors are hopeful of also being involved in the inpatient building, which will be the largest single health facility in New Zealand, covering about 70,000sqm. “For the majority of Dunedin subbies it’s a once in-a-lifetime project in our community, and supporting local businesses and families, and families support communities,” David says. Specialists in Commercial Construction 03 474 1392 | 72 Willis Street, Dunedin | dunedin@abl.co.nz www.abl.co.nz Commercial and Architectural Builders since 1974 p: Mark 027 438 2533 w: www.graybro.co.nz
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