Hawke’s Bay firm takes on New Zealand prison manufacturing, with a plan to cut out Aussies

Andrew Burn (left) and Greg Kidd inside Patton Engineering's Whakatū factory. Photo / Jack Riddell

Never get a country founded as a penal colony to build prison cells.

That’s not exactly the guiding philosophy behind a Hawke’s Bay-based business that is building and installing custodial equipment from a factory in Whakatū.

But taking contracts away from Aussie firms and using them to employ Kiwis instead certainly is.

Since 2002, Napier’s Sharp Edge Engineering has provided institutional solutions for its customers.

From March, the company has passed the baton on to Patton Engineering, which has formed Patton Custodial to manufacture products for prisons, courthouses, police stations and aged-care facilities from Whakatu.

Patton Engineering was started in 1952 by George Patton to provide general engineering services in Hawke’s Bay.

The company was taken over by Patton’s sons Gavin and Mike Patton in 1980 but for the last eight years has been owned and managed by Johno Williams and Andrew Burn, who have grown the Patton Group into a nationwide company.

Patton Custodial came to fruition when Williams and Burn saw an opportunity in the market while the company was tendering work for the new Christchurch Men’s Prison.

Williams saw the opportunity to take the baton from Sharp Edge and start delivering end-to-end design manufacture, delivery and installation for custodial projects around the country.

“Patton Custodial is one of only two New Zealand companies who are qualified to manufacture licensed prison products, but is the only company offering installation too,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is bridge the gap for the tier-one contractors to take away that risk from them, whereby we are doing the install after we’ve manufactured the product.”

Williams said currently, Australian firms that offered end-to-end manufacture and installation of custodial products were in New Zealand “in force”.

“They are manufacturing things in Australia and then sending teams here to New Zealand and doing installation [here].”

The feedback Williams received from contactors was that “it’s going to be so great” dealing with a New Zealand business taking ownership of the end-to-end solutions for New Zealand’s prisons.

Williams said once the Australian companies had finished their contracts, they were gone and “never to be seen from again” until the next job pops up.

“Whereas with us, we’re here to stay.”

Patton Custodial general manager Greg Kidd said while the business was Kiwi-owned and plugging a gap in the market, it also had a “growth mindset”.

“Other businesses are really struggling and shrinking and trying to reduce costs just to survive,” Kidd said.

“We’re going in the other direction.”

With the Patton Group covering the area from Gisborne to Christchurch with around 300 staff, Williams said it was now the country’s largest diversified engineering company.

He said with the bones of Patton Custodial in place, it now just needed to employ its workforce.

Williams expected to start with 15 to 20 staff, but with big custodial projects underway around the country, he said he could see the business outgrowing its current Whakatū factory “quickly”.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.