Business profile: ICB Retaining & Construction
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ICB Retaining & Construction opened its doors in Wellington in the mid-80s as a small two-man operation making crib wall retaining units.
Today, the business is one of New Zealand’s foremost retaining wall construction companies and has carried out work for city councils, railways, and transit, mining, harbour and construction companies.
The past 20 years has been a time of immense growth for ICB which now employs around 70 staff. And that number is expected to grow. "We have hired about 20 new staff members over the last few months and five more over the past week to help keep up with the demand," says co-director Regan Burke. Add to the mix a move from its current North Shore premises to a larger site next door, and it’s clear that 2016 is shaping up to be a busy one.
One of the company’s key tasks over recent months has been putting procedures in place to meet the requirements of the new Health and Safety Reform Bill 2016. "Our health and safety standards need to meet the criteria of our strictest client, which means our standards are higher than most," he says.
And when it comes to purchasing new machinery, health and safety is a big consideration. "The Hyundai equipment we purchase from Porter Equipment is supplied with the necessary safety package and certification including full ROPS, anti-drop valves, reversing cameras and hand rails where needed," says Burke.
ICB has recently replaced six older model diggers and loaders with four Hyundai excavators from Porter Equipment. "We have been aiming to replace our gear at around 8000 hours and have been undertaking a steady replacement programme for much of our front-line machines over the past few years," he says.
"Replacing our gear early means we have the benefit of always having the best technology available to us and with the low-interest rate from Porters, it was hard to say no," Burke explains.
ICB currently has in excess of 20 diggers and is increasingly moving toward Hyundai as a preferred brand. "Hyundais are certainly becoming a popular choice on many of Auckland’s worksites, and we’re really impressed with their performance," says Burke.
"Add to that the excellent post-sale service we receive from Porter Mechanical, and Hyundai has become a very good business choice for us."
Because Porters has highly trained technicians and service teams, ICB knows that should an issue arise with any of its equipment, it will be dealt with quickly and to the highest standard. And that means downtime is kept to a minimum, which is vital when it comes to completing jobs on time and on budget.
Burke, who will be speaking at this year’s Civil Contractors New Zealand conference in August, says embracing technology has been key to ICB’s recent strong growth. "We’ve just introduced a new tablet system that allows us to identify issues with equipment early," says Burke.
"We’re now able to keep track of gear more easily, the result is we get things done faster and more efficiently," he says. "It also improves our ability to measure certain aspects of the business, and that’s important because if you can’t measure your performance, you can’t improve it."
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