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CONTRACTING » Ching Contracting
Business South / November 2013
Staff the key to company success Kelly Deeks The key to business success for multi-disciplined civil works contracting company Ching Contracting is having the right people on the team, allowing the company to focus on doing what it does, and doing it well. Ching Contracting started as a small business in the early 1970s, providing drain laying services around the Nelson region. Company founder Neil Ching established a reputation for reliability, honesty, and integrity for the next 20 years, until the company was purchased by employee Andrew Spittal and a partner in 1994. Spittal ensured the company’s reputation was retained. In 2005 Scott Brookland started working with Ching Contracting, then became a partner in 2008. In 2013, Hamish Oldfield also joined as a partner. Like Ching and Spittal, Brookland and Oldfield believe in these same principles. The company has continued to build on the solid foundation built by Ching in its early days. Spittal and Brookland recognised there were considerable opportunities in the Nelson region to provide specialised drainage and water reticulation services and in recent years roading and earthworks services, and these fields continues to enjoy a rate of growth well above the national average. The production of residential and commercial subdivisions and the need to upgrade local government infrastructural services to cater for the needs of an expanding population has provided a steady and reliable source of work for Ching Contracting. Capitalising on this has seen the business grow and adapt to the needs of the region. Oldfield says the company’s contracting team have a mandate to focus on client relationships, allowing the company to provide innovative solutions. “We have found this partnering approach achieves the best results for principle, client and contractor,” he says. Ching Contracting currently employs about 32 staff, with the longest serving employee notching up an impressive 20 years’ service. “We invest heavily in our staff and we promote from within,” Oldfield says. “One of our contract managers started here eight years ago from the freezing works. He had no industry skills then but he learned and soon became a top notch foreman, and now he’s a contract manager.
Ching Contracting provides a wide range of services including roading and earthworks. “We love to see our staff getting ahead and having something to show for their time with Ching Contracting. We currently have six of our staff undertaking training in level three and four certificates.” Another pleasing result for Ching Contracting was when trainee contracts engineer Sarah Boulton won the New Zealand Contractors Federation national Trainee of the Year award for New Zealand in 2011. Oldfield says “upskilling” the staff is equally as important to the individual undertaking the training as it is to the company. “We know they’re really good at what they do, as that is why we employ them, and when they complete their training this is proven in a written sense,” he says.
We love to see our staff getting ahead and having something to show for their time with Ching Contracting. We currently have six of our staff undertaking training in level three and four certificates.” Hard work goes well rewarded at Ching Contracting, with the company recently shouting the entire staff over to Australia for a weekend. “Our staff deserve it,” Oldfield says. “They show up every day and work hard. They believe in what they do and they believe in the business.” As well as investing in their staff, Spittal,
Brookland, and Oldfield are also investing in their gear, with four new Hitachi excavators added to the fleet in the past two years. Oldfield says this strategy ensures Ching Contracting can continue to deliver its key services in a manner that guarantees 100% total customer satisfaction.
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