By Alison Robertson | Photos Barker Photography
Sticking to a business plan, despite pain along the way, has paid dividends for a Hamilton company.
Hamilton’s Connell Contractors won the Supreme Award at this year’s Westpac Waikato Business Awards. The civil infrastructure company also won the Growth and Strategy category.
Managing director Dave Connell started the business with his wife Margo in 1985 and says while they’ve won industry awards in the past, they’d never won a business award until now, so winning the supreme award was pretty special.
“I couldn’t believe it. There were some pretty smart businesses there – tech companies, Hamilton Airport, big retailers,” Connell says.
In previous years the Connells had attended the awards as guests of Westpac, and it was Westpac staff who suggested they enter this time around.
For the Connells, it’s been a long and sometimes painful journey to get to where they are today. Dave Connell puts their success down to developing and sticking to a business plan. “Our independent directors said ‘this is your business plan, don’t get distracted’. And we didn’t, but in the last five years I’d say there have been three years of pain.”
The business decided to withdraw from commercial work, and not to compete on price, focusing instead on earning the right to service central and local government contracts, and clients include Transpower, Vector, Watercare, and Hamilton and Auckland city councils. They target the three waters – sewer, stormwater and drinking water – and power companies, and Connell anticipates they will also become more involved in the energy sector in future. He says it’s good to work in a niche market but that you need several niches.
They have a staff of 50 but ideally they’d like anywhere between 20 and 50 more people. In an industry where finding resources is an ever-growing challenge, their philosophy of “Right People, Right Result” has been instrumental in the business’ success. “We don’t offer jobs. We offer careers,” Connell says. “And if you offer a career, you get loyalty back, and staff see opportunities to grow, and the most amazing thing is when staff ask to invest in the company.” Recently they took on their first female pipe-laying apprentice, and having hosted 14 girl students from Putaruru High School for a day they think it won’t be too long before more women are out in the field.
“We have great people and we agreed very early on in the formation of our company that we would only compete for tenders that enable us to showcase these attributes,” Connell says. “That is what suits our business model best.”
The company has shown strong revenue growth during a time of significant change and increased competition in the country’s infrastructure industry, and Connell puts his company’s success down to good planning and discipline, having moved away from the peaks and troughs of commercial work. “Clients now approach us to negotiate work directly,” and the company profile is growing, he says.
“Winning the supreme award is a real testament to the wider team. They believe in the Connell approach; they’re passionate about their work and together they deliver quality projects for our clients. We’re incredibly proud of the win, but prouder still of our staff.”
