Sale of truck firms sets South Island links

Farmers Transport general manager Brian Kelsey (left), HW Richardson Group rural transport general manager Wayne McEwan, HW Richardson Group managing director Scott O'Donnell, and Wayne Robinson, operations manager, equity partner, at Farmers Transport and Bushetts Transport, Hastings. Photo / Duncan Brown

More Hawke's Bay sheep and cattle should be crossing Cook Strait with the purchase of local trucking firms by South Island agribusiness HW Richardson Group (HWR).

South Island managers are in Hawke's Bay this week for the first time as owners of what was formerly the transport division of Eastern Equities Group.

The division will remain trading as Farmers Transport, Bushetts Transport, CL Drager and Sons, and Opotiki Transport.

The purchase is a joint venture with former Bushetts manager Wayne Robinson, who is now operations manager for the acquisition.

It means HWR can now call itself a national rural transport company.

"It gives us good links with our operation throughout the South Island. We are pretty excited about that," HWR rural transport general manager Wayne McEwan said.

The sale includes Putaruru, Gisborne and Taihape depots, the assignment of leases for Hastings, Waipawa and Feilding and the continuation of Wairoa and Matamau tenancies.

HWR has annual revenue of more than $1billion and 1500 staff.

It operates 900 heavy trucks from more than 100 sites across New Zealand and Australia.

It is one of New Zealand's largest family-owned businesses with interests in transport, ready-mix concrete, petroleum distribution, contracting, aggregates and waste management.

It already has a strong presence in Hawke's Bay through brands including Holcim, Allied Petroleum and Allied Concrete.

While all 160 transport staff were offered jobs, Mr Robinson said several administrative jobs at Eastern Equities would be lost as HWR picked up that function using South Island staff.

Former Farmers Transport chief executive Jason Roebuck refused to discuss the jobs.

"That is not a conversation we need to have," he said.

Eastern Equities was founded by Mr Roebuck's father, Peter Roebuck, in 1984.

It was listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange until 1999 when Peter Roebuck, with chief executive Murray Boyt, led a management buyout.

It was the region's biggest orchardist until all horticultural assets were sold to Scales Corporation, which owns Mr Apple.