Demand for ready-mix fuels concrete growth

Suzy Fisher started her Whangarei business less than a decade ago with just five trucks.

She probably did not envisage that seven years later demand for concrete mix would be such that eight more trucks would join the growing fleet and her company would need to buy another plant as a back-up.

Ms Fisher, the managing director of Virgin Concrete, said the housing companies were starting to get busier after a lull in recent years due to a number of factors such as the global financial crisis.

Her company has supplied ready-mix concrete to commercial and residential builds as far away as Russell, Kaikohe and Dargaville. The trucks would go wherever they were required, she said.

Virgin Concrete supplied all concrete mix for the construction of Russian steel billionaire Alexander Abramov's palatial home in Helena Bay - estimated to have cost more than $50 million to build.

"The building sector is still a long way to go before it gets out of all its problems, although it's slowly coming out of it," Ms Fisher said.

"The housing and construction sector is getting busier which reflects a growth in confidence." An additional plant recently purchased could be run alongside Virgin Concrete's existing business in Kamo, she said, and plans were for that to happen before Christmas.

She is not sure at this stage whether more staff will be hired to run the second plant.

All trucks have a GPS tracking system which Ms Fisher said helped the company serve its customers better.

The initial installation was done in 2012 into five trucks.

Once Virgin Concrete had tested the system, they gradually installed tracking hardware into the rest of the fleet.

"We are getting another plant put in to manufacture more concrete, so we will be increasing the size of our fleet," says Ms Fisher.

"Navman Wireless will then be even more important in helping us to manage our fleet efficiently."

She employs nine full-time staff as well as casuals.