The weld division of Stevenson Engineering has doubled in size over the past three years due to its expanding customer base. In addition, Engineering’s acquisition of three companies over the past year has resulted in new sources of sub contracting work for the weld division. It is now poised for a further expansion with a proposed 702 square metre workshop extension.
The 23 weld shop staff include four fitter welders, who are permanently based at Stevenson’s Drury Quarry to provide preventative maintenance of its plant.
As a direct result of its purchase of Feilding-based Fruehauf Trailers a year ago, Stevenson Engineering is now building truck bodies in its East Tamaki weld division.
‘Our goal is to build several bodies per month and expand the transport and trailer service work,’ says Engineering’s General Manager David Young. ‘It will take four full-time staff to achieve this goal. We’ve also leased a nearby building from the Stevenson Group to accommodate this work while we’re extending the weld shop. We’ve already built a truck body for DB and are currently working on bodies for Mainfreight and Iveco. Our design engineer Andy Carpenter is a true whiz kid. He draws up the designs, which are then given to the workshop to purchase the necessary components and then production begins.’
The company also purchased Rocktec, a Matamata-based company, in late 2007. This was followed by the Iveco purchase in January 2008.
‘The purchase of these three companies provides significant opportunities for Stevenson Engineering’s facilities and capabilities,’ says David. ‘Rocktec have already provided us with a reasonable amount of sub-contract work for both the weld shop and the machine workshop. We expect this to increase over the next year.’
Weld shop projects for Rocktec include building hoppers, silos and conveyor systems. The machinery workshop is called on to manufacture components for Rocktec. Iveco will sub-contract its chassis modification work to the weld workshop.
‘Our staff can turn their hand to most types of engineering jobs. They need to be very adaptable due to the changing nature of our business. We’re not just building widgets. We’re also a repair and maintenance workshop. Jobs can range from dump truck trays to building pistons, using exotic (alloys) materials, e.g. aluminium bronzes. We have extremely good facilities and a great workshop environment, and we keep up with technology. The rewards are there for everybody. The broad range of work we provide attracts skilled people. They know they’ll be going from one challenging object to build or repair to another,’ says David.
‘We’re developing a strong rapport with staff in the companies we’ve purchased and Stevenson Engineering is becoming a tight unit. Developing these relationships has been very rewarding.’
