Construction leader wins award

The Higgins Group is a Palmerston North civil contracting company. Picture / Higgins Group

It's not easy to stay private and humble when your name's on hundreds of road construction machines around the countryside, but that's what Pat Higgins tries to do.

The Higgins group chairman last night received the Massey University excellence in business award. The award marks graduation week and honours an organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to the economic well-being of the region.

Presenting the award, deputy vice-chancellor Ian Warrington said Higgins had built a reputation for consistently high-quality construction and maintenance.

Professor Warrington said Massey saw in Higgins an organisation which shared its own principles of excellence, relevance and accessibility.

"Their role and contribution to the community takes precedence."

A staunchly local family business, Higgins has grown from small beginnings as D Higgins and Son in 1958 to an expansive contracting group run by Pat and brothers Bernard and Michael.

The business now consumes more than 20,000 tonnes of liquid bitumen a year and up to 40,000 tonnes of cement on projects around the North Island and occasionally in the Pacific in civil construction, earthworks, subdivisions, drainlaying, pavement construction, spray sealing and asphalt paving.

It employs more than 700 people today, about one-third of them in Manawatu, and are still advertising for more willing workers.

Mr Higgins said he was humbled by the award.

"We like to keep below the radar, and personally, I'm not very keen on attention, but it's a bit hard when there are hundreds of machines with your name on. We are still who we are -- ordinary, down-to-earth people."

- nzpa