COMPANY NEWS
Access Specialties
Ahead for height
Since 2017, Brendan Walker and his Access Specialities team have been quietly getting on with becoming one of the most comprehensively skilled EWP and telehandler equipment repair, service, and certification providers in the country.
H
aving doubled the Access Specialties team in the last four years from 21 to 40 staff members, managing director Brendan Walker says that inevitably this busy company has also now had to double the size of its workshop space. “We’ve just moved into a new 2,700 square foot building at 104 Carbine Road, Mount Wellington which gives us nine bays inside the workshop – double what we had before,” he says. “We also now have one of the biggest paint booths in the EWP repair industry and more room to look after the specialised gear we service and repair, such as the truck-mounted Aichi booms used by power companies on which we undertake high voltage testing, or some of the larger EWPs the construction industry utilises, like the two 43m Genies we’re servicing at the moment.” With Access Specs also stocking and selling parts for a variety of well-known brands, and with many
PAGE 22
- HIANZ HIRE & RENTAL 2021
Parts for a variety of wellknown brands, and with many customers relying on the company’s inventory for older model EWPs and telehandlers. customers relying on the company’s inventory for older model EWPs and telehandlers, Brendan says the additional space is crucial for this side of the multifaceted business as well. But while the new larger premises take shape in Mount Wellington, Access Specs is by no means tethered to just one location. With customers spread far and wide, the team also includes four field service technicians in the Waikato, and more personnel covering, Northland, the Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, and the Lower North Island. Beyond the industry itself, Brendan says he loves
getting involved in local community initiatives: Access Specs is a supporter of the United North Piha Surf Lifesaving Club on Auckland’s West Coast, for example. “We’re all for both town and country. A big part of our business is getting out on site to where the equipment is based, rather than what you see in our workshop,” continues Brendan. “I’d say probably 50% of our maintenance business revolves around going to remote locations in the provinces and getting our customers’ back up and running out there. We have contracts for national entities such as Fonterra, and we look after anything aerial for Fire & Emergency New Zealand, which means we need expertise all over the country. We have two full-time service coordinators logging jobs, so while things look busy in the workshop there’s an equal amount of
