"A lot of people identified with the Active bit and know us pretty closely, so we wanted to get a name that retained the old, but also spoke of the new and what we are doing now."
The company has around 50 staff in Rotorua, up about 20 per cent on last year, and has recently added a new product category to its lineup.
Active VMA planned to maintain its present staffing level, but aimed to build revenue by a further 20 per cent over the next two years by increasing productivity through its commitment to lean manufacturing, said Mr Schultz.
The company's workmanship can be seen in machinery on highways and forests across New Zealand. Active VMA has over the years developed three main work areas - creating fit-for-purpose truck bodies, the importing of a range of attachments, and the conversion of excavators for forestry applications.
Komatsu Forest sales manager John Kosar said Active VMA converted the machines it uses in forestry work. "The work is excellent and the guys in their team are awesome," he said.
The company's transport engineering work creates specialised truck bodies for road patrol and maintenance vehicles. That includes adding a road broom on the front, tipping decks, tool boxes, storage for posts, and arrows to divert traffic.
The company also imports a couple of brands of attachments, covering a range of uses including mulching, roading stabilisers, stone crushers and various agricultural uses.
Active VMA has now added a fourth category, truck-mounted elevated work platforms, the telescoping baskets used to service overhead power lines and trim high vegetation.
"We got into the new area by listening to our existing customers air their frustrations about the competing brands," said Mr Schultz.
Active VMA creates the elevated work platforms in Rotorua by installing a boom and basket manufactured by Midwestern, USA company Terex, on a specialised deck constructed to fit on a cab and chassis. The advantages over a competing Japanese product included the elevated work platform being able to work with full weight on a 360 degree axis, said Mr Schultz.
"The Terex product is very basic and very simple, while still being competitive in terms of weight and performance."
Active VMA is currently building two of the new platforms - with another five on the way - for Unison. The powerco had been using two different products for its powerline maintenance, and to keep vegetation clear of the lines.
Unison procurement and fleet manager Kim O'Gorman said the powerco had become frustrated with aspects of the product it had been using for its electrical workers, and with servicing delays.
"The Terex boom is very basic and stripped back, without all the computerised components," she said, adding the solution developed by Active VMA was more usable, and could potentially meet both its operational requirements.
Mr Schultz said the new category had the potential to provide longer-term customer buy-in. Most of the specialised vehicles the company did had a 10-year lifespan before needing full refurbishment, he said.
"We're trying to build stuff that lasts for a long period of the time. But one of the reasons for heading in this new direction is to give us more opportunities to stay with our customers."
The elevated work platform category of machinery typically required servicing every six months, he said.
Active VMA business development and attachments sales manager Chris Newson said the rebranding and business refocusing was a major commitment for the company and reflected its growth.
"We're going through great pains to ensure people understand exactly what we do," he said. "Everything will be changing to encompass the direction we're growing into, which is far broader than when we started out 20 years ago."
Active VMA
● Founded: 1997, as Active Transport Engineers, with one employee
● Became Active Engineering Solutions in 2004
● Rebranded: Active VMA (vehicles, machines and attachments) in 2017
