A fast-growing engineering firm says its plan to open a branch in the Western Bay will create up to 50 jobs.
Industrial engineering company SPIIND (South Pacific Industrial Limited) is opening a branch in Mount Maunganui in early February 2015. Managing director Paul Hebberd said the site was expected to employ 40 to 50 staff within the next six months.
This will be the third New Zealand site for the company, which was set up in Ruakaka, Northland in 1975, but added an operation in Auckland 18 months ago and is now expanding again to meet increased demand, he said.
"We've got quite an aggressive growth strategy in place," he said. "We're very much seeing a lot of the large and medium-sized organisations in New Zealand starting to take their hands out of their pockets for projects that have been talked about for a long time."
Once its Tauranga facility is established, the company plans further New Zealand sites and is also in discussions with clients regarding opening its first Australian site in late 2015 or early 2016.
Mr Hebberd said the company, which has a staff of 200, was looking to recruit skilled tradespeople, including fitter / welders, boilermakers, registered electricians and instrument technicians.
"Finding staff is the biggest challenge we face," he said. "We are starting to see a gross gain to New Zealand in terms of immigration, but nevertheless we are way short of good tradespeople."
The company opted for Tauranga after considering a number of sites in the wider Bay of Plenty region and Hamilton, said Mr Hebberd.
"We have a number of clients in the oil and gas sector and in agri-industry in Tauranga and they wanted us to be here, so that really swung it," he said. "We could have operated easily in some other centres, but Tauranga has other benefits, including the port."
The company was also developing a new product of its own with export potential, he said.
The company's competitive advantage and the key to its recent growth, was that it offered clients a one-stop shop option by providing both mechanical engineering and industrial and electrical services, Hebberd said.
Priority One chief executive Andrew Coker said SPIIND was the kind of company Tauranga needed to attract. "SPIIND is a manufacturing operation with an export focus, and these are the businesses that tend to grow and to demand skilled people."