Elevated platform pick of the crop

The elevated platform that has been designed by Mural Town Engineering in Katikati.

A small engineering firm in Katikati is making a name for itself with an innovative elevated platform suitable for operation on construction sites, and avocado harvest that could also be exported to the states and Europe.

Mural Town Engineering director Don Rust said the machines were already sold in New Zealand and Australia and would soon hit the commercialisation stage for California.

Avocado picking machines were mechanised many years ago and Mr Rust said when he was approached to improve the safety and performance in the industry he jumped at the chance.

"We had a lot of technologies to bring to the table and were confident of developing any more needed.

The vast majority of elevated platforms had a slope limitation of 5degrees which is not steep at all.

You can appreciate when you are on an elevated platform up in the sky any little ground variation is amplified.

"So we were able to build a machine that could handle 25degrees comfortably."

In fact, Mr Rust said they had built five models that the company had future proofed compliance-wise to New Zealand and Australian regulations.

The build and design time for the first prototype which was tested in Katikati took 18 months and the industry response was encouraging.

No stranger to success with other products including designing levelling excavators - which was well received in the international market - Mr Rust said it was pivotal the company had its manufacturing arm in place before launching the All Terrain elevated Platform in the United States.

"We learned from that previous experience. We thought we might sell one or two a month overseas and that would be great but we sold 200 in two weeks and had to stop there.

"There was no way we could build them so we did a deal with an international company and they leased the technology from us. We learned from that if you market your product too early before you are manufacture-capable it might just kill the whole deal."

At the moment the business was concentrating on how it may cope with future demand for the All Terrain elevated Platforms (ATPs), he said.

"We need to know we can supply so we are stitching that up at the moment."

A few weeks ago the company hired more staff and currently it outsourced a lot of work, he said.

"It was taking us too long to build these All Terrain elevated Platforms and get them out the door. So it seems crazy but we are a tiny company so we probably outsource 75 per cent of the work to a number of different larger businesses in the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Auckland which make different components for us.

"We get back all their fabrications and assemble and test the machines here and manufacture the specialist parts in-house."

Mr Rust said Katikati seemed to be a hub for innovative entrepreneurs and innovative businesses, which was great.

"I think it's fantastic for a country town like Katikati to have a lot of prosperity in the area."