Campbell's United kingdom

Andrew Campbell is an example of the local boy who goes away, makes good, then returns home to do valuable work in his community.

Campbell, 38, is the managing director of United Civil Construction, a company formed when he and operations manager Paul Mandeno bought half the construction division of Whangarei-based logistics company United Carriers nearly two years ago.

Born and raised in Northland, Campbell started off working for a local council, went overseas for a spell, then returned to New Zealand to work for consulting engineering company Beca in Auckland while completing his NZCE (civil). He subsequently obtained a civil-engineering degree and was sent by Beca to Belize in Central America where he spent five years as a resident engineer and later the in-country manager on road and bridge projects.

He returned home in late 2003 and soon after told his Beca project manager, Ian Stenberg, he missed the hands-on work he had enjoyed in Belize. So Stenberg directed him to a relative, Barry Stenberg, who was about to retire after 30 years as general manager of United’s construction division and relinquish his company shareholding.

Campbell joined United, became construction general manager and, subsequently, acquired part-ownership when United Civil Construction was set up. Though United Carriers recently sold its transport operations to Toll Holdings, it has retained its half-share in United Civil.

Campbell says his return to Northland has proved rewarding.

“It’s obviously very full-on being a business owner but it’s going well. We’ve got good people around us and we’ve grown – turnover has increased threefold from when we took over the company and the staff has increased from about 20 to 65 to 70. And we have some really good clients.”

United Carriers was formed nearly half a century ago, and its construction arm was created about 35 years ago.

Since then United has been a leading provider of Northland infrastructure. Projects in recent times include:

• Building a state highway in the late 1990s through the Waipu Forest in which small “root bridges” had to be placed over kauri roots to protect them. The project won Transit an Institute of Professional Engineers award.
• Constructing State Highway 1 crawler lanes on the Brynderwyn Hills in 2000.
• Providing heavy-duty pavements, drainage and associated services from 2000 on the lengthy Northport development project.
• Carrying out $12 million civil works for Mainzeal at Carter Holt Harvey’s laminated veneer lumber manufacturing plant at Marsden Pt in 2001-02.
• Lead contractor for all three stages of the Whangarei Heads sewerage scheme. The $14.6 million third stage was completed in September.
• Building stormwater and sewerage infrastructure for local councils. United is one of three pre-qualified tenderers for Far North District Council’s large-value water and wastewater capital-expenditure projects (Fulton Hogan and Downer EDI Works are the other two).

Although many provincial civil contractors are facing a struggle for survival and an uncertain future, Andrew Campbell believes his expanding company has what it takes.

“We’ve been bold and said, ‘Let’s give it a go’. We’re ambitious but not insensibly so,” he says.

“It’s a challenge and I think we have a role to play up here. It’s small and medium-sized businesses which provide the bulk of employment for New Zealanders and I don’t see why that should change.”