Established systems prove a winning formula for Paul Smith Earthmoving

Having proven systems in place and focussing on delivery are just two parts of a winning formula for Paul Smith Earthmoving.

“Potential clients look at a company’s history and at its known attributes when they are considering giving that company a contract,” says Tony Moir, co-owner with Bruce Tinnelly of Paul Smith Earthmoving. “Over the past 17 years of operation we have built up an absolutely solid record for completing projects on time and to a high standard. The by-product of that record and of our size and expertise is that we gain more and more work.”

Paul Smith Earthmoving is an earthworks contractor specialising in a diverse range of services – excavation, track and road maintenance, landscaping, rock supply, landfill management, site clearance and demolition, house foundations, retaining walls, drain laying, water retention ponds, dairy conversions and truck and transport works.

The company’s client list is as diverse as its services list is long. Tony says this is testament to the company’s commitment to doing exactly what it says it will do. Residential, commercial, forestry, farm and government clients have all benefitted from the expert skill and experience of this company.

With bases in Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru and Greymouth, more than 180 permanent staff and a fleet of some 60 diggers, plus dozers, graders, scrapers, rollers, trucks and transport vehicles, Paul Smith Earthmoving is surely a long way towards achieving its goal of being recognised as the premier earthworks contractor in the South Island.

“Each year since 2002 we have grown, taken on new staff and bought new plant. The growth has been because of necessity, because of the amount of work we have on our books. But at the same time it has been planned and controlled expansion – never any more than is sustainable at the time.”

Last year Paul Smith Earthmoving opened a base in Auckland which specialises in civil works, and has also expanded into Central Otago. “We currently have a number of projects on the go in Wanaka, Alexandra and Queenstown. We are doing sub-division works and residential landscaping, as well as drainage work for local councils.”

Paul Smith Earthmoving’s machinery is also highly visible in South Canterbury, especially in Twizel where it opened a new base in late March this year and in Tekapo. “Every day we will have two-three machines working around Tekapo doing residential landscaping or sub-division site clearance for the Mackenzie District Council.”

The size of a job is irrelevant as far as this company is concerned. What is relevant is delivering and keeping clients happy. “Private residential landscaping work is about one third of our operation. On the other hand we are also involved with very large roading works for companies such as Downers and significant site works for irrigation schemes. Preparing the ground for the laying of a 130km water pipeline network for Australian engineering group Monadelphous as part of the Amuri Irrigation Scheme near Culverden was a huge undertaking for us last year. The Kurow Duntroon Irrigation Company has also contracted us as part of the expansion of that system that runs south of the Waitaki River from Lake Waitaki to Duntroon.”