Property & Construction | RA Shearing Contractors
RA Shearing Contractors marks 40 years in business When Bob Shearing first started local firm RA Shearing Contractors Ltd from the backyard of his Christchurch home, they worked out concrete volumes using a slide rule.
“I can still remember having my first hand held calculator on the job,” he laughs. Now as the company celebrates 40 years, it celebrates the hard work, passion and dedication of both the family and team behind its formation, and the drive and determination that continues to propel the company forward. By 1976 Bob had already been working in the local industry for three to four years, carrying out local concrete contracting work, when he joined up with Graeme and Rose Marshall
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The legacy continues: Lorna Shearing, today the office manager, in front of the company’s second ever truck, when it was bought by her father, the company founder and owner, Bob Shearing
and, together with Bob’s first wife Pam, they formed the business. The company was incorporated on July 9, 1976. Graeme also came from a contracting background and had just finished doing the curbing around the track of Queen Elizabeth II Park prior to the 1974 British Commonwealth Games. Together they carried out concreting and earth works throughout the city for a number of years, focusing predominantly on residential driveway and paving works, before purchasing a local Sockburn business – Wigram Concrete Posts – mainly for the yard space it offered and, along with their first truck and mini-loader, operated alongside the concrete precast business they had also purchased.
Fast facts • Established in 1976 • Bob Shearing established the local firm from home in Hornby • Has diversified operations to encompass a wide range of divisions • A multi-award winning local firm • First site was a Sockburn yard where the business remains today • Is a family owned local company.
The contracting business continued with the truck and loader. They purchased a dozer and soon hired their first machine operator, Owen Johnstone. Owen is still with the company, but is now the manager of the Mayfair Pools division
From there the business continued to develop; the concrete posts division faded away while the concrete precast business continued to operate from the yard at 210 Main South Road, where RA Shearing Contractors Ltd (Shearing’s) continues to operate from, though on a much larger scale today than four decades ago.
It was in 1978 that the company became involved with the nationwide franchise Mayfair Swimming Pools, a fibreglass swimming pool manufacturer and another long standing Kiwi firm established in 1973 which today has 14 agencies spread throughout the country that meets the philosophy ‘any size, any shape, anywhere’.
“Like every industry, technology has played a significant role in how we have developed over the years. Trucks and machinery have become bigger and more efficient, but in general the earthmoving, concrete business and Mayfair Swimming Pools are still very much the same as when we first started; but we’re bigger and do more of it now,” he comments.
FIRTH, THE TRUSTED NAME IN CONCRETE. Proud to Support RA Shearing Contractors
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Congratulating RA Shearing Contractors on their 40th Anniversary 68 Mandeville Street, Christchurch Phone 03 943 0111 info@copeshearing.co.nz
Mitchell James Ph: (03) 313 4373 Cell: 0274 134 382
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Shaughan James Cell: 0274 134 382
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Est. 1974