Stevenson Concrete consults with staff over restructuring proposal

Stevenson has a fleet of 50 concrete trucks.

Fulton Hogan is restructuring its loss-making subsidiary Stevenson Concrete and is consulting with employees over a proposal that could mean at least a dozen jobs are disestablished.

The Herald understands Stevenson Concrete general manager Tim Meikle has already left the business ahead of the strategic review and is not taking part in the process.

The concrete division is part of Stevenson Group, which Fulton Hogan acquired in 2018 for $300 million.

A Fulton Hogan spokesperson confirmed a consultation process had started with employees in the Stevenson concrete business.

“The concrete market nationally continues to shrink and has been down approximately 25% for some period now. This correlates heavily with the downturn in residential building activity, which has declined in the past two years.

“Concrete volumes are not expected to materially improve in the next 12 to 18 months.”

It is understood Stevenson Concrete made a loss of $2.6m in the 2024 financial year and is down $886,000 in the first two months of FY2025.

“With the market downturn, Steveson Concrete is proposing to ‘right-size’ the business area to align with the current and foreseeable market size,” the spokesperson said in an emailed response to Herald questions.

“As we are in a formal consultation phase and out of respect to our people in the Stevenson business, we are not in the position to provide any further detail, whilst we explore all the viable options with our people.”

The Herald understands at least 13 key positions are proposed to be disestablished, including plant managers at Stevenson’s four Auckland sites in East Tamaki, Penrose, Drury and Rānui.

A number of positions are also proposed to have a reduction, title and responsibility change and reporting line change. This could potentially mean a change to regular working hours for some employees, including Ready-Mix truck drivers.

Stevenson has a fleet of 50 concrete trucks and recently promoted the arrival of new vehicles with a new look and new features.

The company provides concrete products and services for commercial, infrastructure and residential clients.

While Stevenson’s concrete division is under pressure, the rest of Fulton Hogan’s business is going well.

On Friday Fulton Hogan said it made a net profit of $348.7m for the 2024 financial year on revenue of $7.03 billion. The profit was down on the $382m reported in the 12 months to June 2023, but overall revenue was up 5.7% on the previous year’s $6.65b.

Fulton Hogan managing director Cos Bruyn said in a statement last week that the infrastructure company had invested $290m of capital expenditure on more modern, lower emissions plants and equipment.

“We’ve taken advantage of ongoing topline growth in FY24 to invest to ensure we can contribute to the future infrastructure pipeline needs highlighted by governments in both New Zealand and Australia,” Bruyn said on Friday.

“The continuing demand for fit-for-purpose infrastructure is expected to underpin a strong pipeline of work opportunities. We continue to invest in our people and key assets to remain efficient and fit for the future.”

The private company, whose major shareholders include the founding Fulton and Johnstone families, also has more than 2000 current employees on its share register.