Foster Group proudly opened their new head office in Arthur Porter Drive. The office has been created as a showhome for the Foster Group, and represents a significant investment for the Group in providing a place for their team to be proud of.
“We were grateful for the support of our community at the opening of our new offices, commented Leonard Gardner, Foster Group’s commercial manager. “As a company our purpose is to create a great community, and an event like opening a new office is a chance to bring your community together to celebrate.” The building was officially opened by Graham Mallett and Minister of Finance Grant Robertson.
Graham spoke of Foster Construction’s history in the Waikato, commenting on the connection with Arthur Porter Drive, and the longstanding relationship between Fosters and Porters that started with Arthur Porter. Graham noted that while the current company Foster Construction was 46 years old, L G Foster set up and ran business since 1948.
The new office has been designed to accommodate the Foster Group businesses which are Foster Develop, Foster Construction, Foster Maintain, Foster Engineering and Foster Transport. Investments into new technologies and resources in the building are already bringing efficiencies into the business.
“The new office has been designed to create a modern workplace with an open plan office environment, and as much flexibility as possible,” says Gardner. “This includes investment in items like gantry cranes in the engineering workshop, video conferencing facilities in the office and a new cloud IT system that enables the Fosters BIM modelling team to grow.”
Brad Wade, Adam Findlay, Alan Wade and Colin Wade.
Foster Construction has a number of prominent projects in the Waikato, and last year completed the first stage of the Bayfair development in Mount Maunganui. The commercial construction market is growing quickly as business in the Waikato continues to develop and expand, and the new head office provides Fosters’ 175 staff with a base to operate from and deliver projects.
One of the Foster Group’s key strategic objectives is to become a preferred employer in the Waikato and construction market. ‘We are looking to build a team that supports the purpose and contributes to the culture we are trying to create. An important part of this is the physical environment that we provide for our staff to work in. At the end of the day we want to employ the best people so that we can deliver the best projects.”
An important aspect of the building is how it engages with the community. With the open foyer, café and accessible meeting rooms available for use, a number of companies that are a part of Fosters community have used this space to have meetings offsite.
