Murray Robertson, chief executive of Downer NZ. Photo / Michael Craig
Change is afoot at New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure services provider, Downer.
In April, data business BCI ranked Downer-owned Hawkins as second only to Mansons TCLM in the list of New Zealand’s 50 biggest builders according to the value of work in hand. It was a close thing: Hawkins had $857.50 million worth of current projects and Mansons had $857.502m worth.
Hawkins is owned by Downer EDI, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and its Downer NZ has been running the Hawkins business here since it bought it for $60.5m six years ago.
From July 1, Downer NZ’s chief executive Murray Robertson becomes chief operating officer for transport and infrastructure business across Australia and New Zealand.
At the same time, says Robertson, Downer will stop splitting the business into Downer Australia and Downer NZ, calling them by separate names. From then on the businesses will both be just Downer, a transtasman contracting business known by the one name.
Craig Treloar, executive general manager of Hawkins, remains in his position heading Hawkins from its headquarters at 60 Stanley St, Parnell.
Robertson and Treloar are both Kiwis, and both are headquartered in Auckland. Robertson, an engineer who is originally from Auckland, says his new role from next month will see him moving between there and Melbourne.
Treloar, originally from Rotorua, started out as an apprentice carpenter, then moved his way into project management and then other management positions, eventually heading the Hawkins business whose distinctive orange “H” appears on so many sites throughout New Zealand. He joined Hawkins in 2003.
“I was on sites for many years as a foreman and project manager before leading the Auckland region and then more recently into my role as executive general manager,” Treloar says.
Robertson says Downer and Hawkins have distinctive niches: Downer, which bought Hawkins in 2017, does the horizontal work such as rail, roads, streets, and cycleways, while Hawkins does the vertical work like high-rise commercial buildings, airport projects, museums, hotels and so on.
Downer EDI has annual revenue of A$13 billion and New Zealand accounts for around $3.5b of that, Robertson says.
Downer has about 25,000 employees in Australia and some 10,000 in New Zealand.
Robertson says the biggest challenge lately has been “making sure we’re attracting key talents, attracting people to New Zealand and Australia”. He’s been with the business for 15 years, appointed as Downer NZ chief executive only last December.
Downer NZ’s annual report to June 30, 2022 filed on the NZ Companies Office site, shows an increasingly profitable business in this country. Revenue rose from $1.84b to $1.88b. Total income was up from $33.7m to $37.5m.
Downer NZ is part of the Link Alliance working on New Zealand’s biggest building contract - the City Rail Link - with Vinci Construction Grands Projets S.A.S., Soletanche Bachy International NZ, WSP NZ, Aecom NZ and Tonkin + Taylor.
Other work includes the downtown programme for Auckland Council and Auckland Transport.
Downer maintains more than 28,000km of Australian roads and 25,000km-plus here. It is a top manufacturer and supplier of bitumen-based products and an innovator in the sustainable asphalt industry and circular economy, using recycled products and environmentally sustainable methods to produce asphalt.
Treloar was also appointed to head Hawkins only last December. Before that, he was a general manager of building projects in Auckland for that business. He acknowledges around $850m in annual revenue, but says the business employs only 550 people. The rest are contractors or subcontractors, engaged on particular jobs.
Hawkins hit a milestone in 2021, celebrating 75 years, and Treloar says the company is by far New Zealand’s largest commercial construction business.
Fletcher Building swore off vertical construction after nearly $1b of losses over two years in its Buildings + Interiors division, with the company citing the NZ International Convention Centre, Commercial Bay in downtown Auckland and Christchurch’s Justice + Emergency Precinct as responsible for much of that.
Treloar says Hawkins is now working for mostly governmental or institutional “blue chip-type clients and our delivery track record has never been better”.
He cites the new $300m Tōtara Haumaru North Shore Hospital building as part of a wider $600m upgrade. That is the biggest upgrade of that hospital in the 40 years or so since its main tower block was built in the early 1980s.
Hawkins has had a substantial and ongoing role at Auckland Airport, with the terminal integration project due to be completed in 2025.
The company is also working on Auckland University’s recreation and wellness centre on Symonds St, due for completion next year. The university’s social work building at 11 Wynyard St is due to be done later this year.
For NZX-listed Precinct Properties, Hawkins is head contractor for a new office building on the Pakenham/Halsey St corner in the Wynyard Quarter, a project due to be finished next year. Beca will move more than 1000 staff from Pitt St to 124 Halsey St.
Waikato University’s The Pā, at Hillcrest Rd in Hamilton, is another Hawkins job, due to be completed this year.
Meanwhile, Rototuna junior and senior high schools in Hamilton are due to be finished next year.
Hawkins is also working on the second stage of Wellington’s Wakefield Hospital redevelopment, and the Christchurch Performing Arts Precinct.
Hawkins and China Construction built the Wynyard Quarter’s new $300m Park Hyatt Auckland. In 2018, about 140 Chinese tradespeople were flown in because of a local labour shortage. That hotel was designed by Ali Reda from ar+d in Singapore, with local firm Bossley Architects.
The 100m x 50m building was developed and is owned by interests associated with Beijing-based Fu Wah International Group, headed by one of China’s richest women, Madam Chan Laiwa, who attended 2016′s ground-breaking with then-Prime Minister Sir John Key.
Auckland University’s new B405 engineering school job was another Hawkins project.
However many jobs you list, Downer and Hawkins are giants of New Zealand infrastructure and construction, their names synonymous with work critical to this country’s growing economy.
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.