Naylor Love won the highest value of New Zealand building workload started last year, according to data specialists BCI Central which today released a list of the 50 most active builders in this country following last year’s inaugural list.
The BCI Construction League Report said Naylor Love - restoring Christ Church Cathedral and building New Zealand’s first Ikea at Mount Wellington - started $820 million worth of work in 2023.
Its projects had an average value of $10.9m.
Chief executive Bruno Goedeke took over from Rick Herd in April. Under Herd, the builder’s workload had climbed to a $1 billion annual turnover.
Sarah Murphy, BCI Central‘s Australia and New Zealand research manager, said the report celebrated the top firms’ achievements and examined the top 10 sector leaders.
Noteworthy highlights include Naylor Love securing the top spot for the first time as well as Watts & Hughes, Cook Brothers Construction, Icon Construction, and Southbase Construction entering the top 10.
Regular table-toppers CMP Construction and Dominion Constructors maintained their dominance with a second year in the top 10, Murphy said.
Commercial projects made up 38% of the new ones started last year, followed by 31% community and cultural sector work and 6% residential.
The construction sector faced a complex array of economic obstacles creating significant pressure on project budgets and timelines, Murphy said. Despite these challenges, the resilience and adaptability of the nation’s leading construction firms shine through, as showcased.
The top 50 builders started 612 projects with $8.4b, while the top 10 started 283 projects worth just over $4.8b.
1. Nayor Love: 75 projects worth $820m started in 2023
Its Auckland headquarters are at Glenfield and new chief executive Bruno Goedeke splits his time between there and the national office network.
This locally owned builder had annual revenue of about $720m in 2021 but it added a further $250m per year in just two years due to the scale of projects. They included: a large volume for Kiwi Property Group at Mt Wellington ($200m build-to-rent apartments Resido, and the $63m offices at 3 Te Kahu Way as well as extensions to Sylvia Park shopping centre); the big new Fisher & Paykel building in Penrose; data centres; and larger hospital work.
Sylvia Park’s new $200m-plus Ikea, the new $100m-plus data centre DCI Auckland at Rosedale on the North Shore, upgrading Queenstown’s Skyline gondola in stages, building a new Southern Cross in Wellington’s Newtown, the new Ngāi Tahu ACC Ōtepoti building in Dunedin, Bidfood Wellington, Lynfield College, a new block for Burnside High School, and Mana College’s main building are just some of the large jobs this builder started last year.
2. Haydn & Rollett: five projects worth $568m started in 2023
Another locally owned business headed by Kim Barrett, owned by the Haydn & Rollett Group Partnership.
Barrett, Simon Bufton, Kitt Littlejohn, Thomas Wilson, and Arthur Young are directors.
The $100m-plus Westgate Costco Wholesale was built by this firm.
The same builder headed work on the $250m Carlaw Park student village in Parnell for Reidy & Co and Ergon Properties. That 10-level block for nearly 1000 students at the Stanley Street and Nicholls Lane intersection won a Property Council award last year.
Barrett said apartments were “oversubscribed which demonstrated a high level of un-met need locally and also [shows] signs that the international student numbers are coming back. This will help provide much-needed infrastructure to meet long-term accommodation requirements for both segments.”
The project was inspired by United States college accommodation, Barrett and Greg Reidy told the Herald last April. The huge new block has a central courtyard for games like volleyball as well as a barbecue area.
3. LT McGuinness: 28 projects worth $546m started in 2023
The family owned Wellington-headquartered business has been running for 70 years and is now third-generation with a construction workforce of more than 350 people.
Waterfront office refurbishment for Precinct Properties’ InterContinental Hotel and refurbished offices as well as the new Catalina Bay apartments, Hobsonville Point are some of its more high-profile jobs lately.
Catalina Bay was developed by Willis Bond, headed by Mark McGuinness whose brothers and relatives run LT McGuinness.
The builder has a considerable number of Viaduct Harbour/Wynyard Quarter apartments to its name.
However, it was hit by tragedy when a gunman killed two people and injured others on an Auckland waterfront building site last year.
LT McGuinness is constructing the new National Archive building in Wellington as well as the Wellington City Library.
4. Southbase Construction: 10 projects worth $510m started in 2023
This group of independent specialist companies has risen fast up the list.
Shirley Boys’ and Avonside Girls’ high schools for the Ministry of Education, and Tūranga, the Christchurch central city library, are just some of its many projects.
This builder was founded in 2013 as part of the recovery response to the Canterbury earthquakes.
“Since then, we have delivered for a diverse portfolio of public and private sector clients and become known as a proven performer in the New Zealand commercial construction industry,” it says.
The business is New Zealand owned and operated.
“We are a proven performer in delivering projects of national significance. Over the last 10 years, we have successfully delivered over $2b in project value,” the business says.
5. Watts & Hughes: 44 projects worth $487m started in 2023
The business, established in Auckland in 1984 and in Tauranga in 2004, merged in 2010 to strengthen its North Island presence. After the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, it moved south.
In the Auckland region Watts & Hughes offers a range of construction management services while in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Wellington regions the management services are augmented by a more hands-on approach to also include the supply of some of the required construction trades.
The builder has branched out south, with services in Marlborough, Canterbury, the West Coast, and Otago.
Big jobs include a replacement Woolworths Taupō Central, Tauranga Boys’ music college, KFC outlets and the fit-out of a new radiology clinic at Tauranga’s Fraser Cove Shopping Centre.
6. Icon Construction: two projects worth $481m started in 2023
A change of leadership occurred at this business last July, with Dan Ashby’s role now taken over by Dan Bosher.
One of its highest-profile jobs lately has been the new $250m 41-level 225-room Hotel Indigo Auckland, with apartments above that, at 51 Albert St.
Bosher said the tower was around the fifth-tallest in Auckland at 142m.
Icon has a string of impressive Auckland buildings to its name including apartment block the Pacifica, and opposite the new Indigo it built the Holiday Inn and voco Auckland City Centre.
All three hotels are being operated or will be operated by global hotel group IHG.
7. CMP Construction NZ: seven projects worth $416m started in 2023
Victoria Park-headquartered, founded and owned by Ron Macrae, chiefs include Andrew Moore and Tony Howard.
It has finished new $150m Remuera Victoria Lane luxury apartments for Richard Kroon and St Heliers’ Kaimata apartments, The Grey apartments in Grey Lynn and Hyde Lane apartments, Alpha St, Wellington and the $110m Risland Albany.
CMP built Avondale’s new Highbury Triangle apartments for Kāinga Ora. Those receiving high praise, as people begin moving in.
New headquarters for Atlas Concrete at Takapuna and Hyde Lane apartments in Wellington are some current jobs.
Queenstown’s eye-catching new Junction Village carpark building is the start of a wider worker accommodation scheme there, by the same clients building new apartments at Auckland’s Alexandra Park.
8. Dominion Constructors: 20 projects worth $360m started in 2023
Brett Russell, managing director of this builder, won a major coup in April when the Beachlands South plan change was accepted, allowing an entirely new community to be built in south east Auckland.
There, $2.5b infrastructure is just the start of a new hub with a town centre on 307ha of land where 5000 new homes are planned.
Dominion Constructors is Auckland-headquartered, family-owned owned and been trading for more than 45 years.
“Proud to be a 100% New Zealand owned and part of the Russell Group of Companies, Dominion has expanded from its beginnings as a concrete structures specialist to now employ more than 200 people and operate five divisions,” it says.
9. Calder Stewart Holdings: 28 projects worth $320m started in 2023
This southern giant has the bulk of its work on the Mainland.
The family owned business was started by Bruce Stewart and Lance Calder of the Milton manufacturing company in Milton in 1955.
The company began building houses, then moved on to much bigger work throughout New Zealand.
Kmart Waikato, Mainfreight Ashburton and the Clutha Community Centre are projects this business showcases.
10. Cook Brothers Construction: 64 projects worth $309m started in 2023
The builder has been much-praised for a wide spread of work including Winton Land’s new hospitality precinct Ayrburn outside Arrowtown which has won many awards including from the Property Council this month.
Simon Glass, Cook Brothers Construction business development director, said that the business started work on some of the Ayrburn buildings in October 2021 and is continuing.
Limewashed schist stone exteriors, blackened steel and stained vertical cedar and beech are hallmarks of the buildings on the 60ha farm which Winton chief executive Chris Meehan said is one of the earliest in the area and which he bought from the late Adrian Burr.
“Initially formed in Dunedin 17 years ago, today, Cook Brothers Construction is a national commercial construction company with regional branches in Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, Queenstown and Wānaka,” the builder says.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
'Developers are a good target for a council under financial pressure.' - Steve Evans