In the heart of Hawke’s Bay, where rugged landscapes meet relentless ambition, Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire is redefining the skyline. As construction projects continue to climb and infrastructure projects grow larger, this dynamic company stands as the region’s heavyweight champion in delivering precision and unparalleled service with its fleet of cranes and access equipment.
The business continues to elevate the industry to new heights by ensuring each project reaches its pinnacle with seamless efficiency and unrivalled expertise. This fast growing business prides itself as a one stop shop for the supply of quality crane equipment with highly experienced operators, an extensive range of mobile access equipment, the ability to transport oversize loads, right through to supplying bulk water provisions for business and lifestyle customers. They also offer businesses secure storage facilities at its Whakatu yard, centrally located between Napier and Hastings.
Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire’s managing director, Aaron Bourke, has been growing the business through a series of acquisitions. With 20 year’s experience in contracting under his belt, Aaron could see a need for a crane and platform hire business which offers a large selection of mobile equipment ranging in size and capability. In 2015, Aaron bought Hawke’s Bay Crane Hire, followed by Hawke’s Bay Platform Hire in 2020, and combined the two businesses to form Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire, creating a fleet of cranes, hiabs, slab and rough terrain scissor lifts, knuckle booms, forklifts and cherry pickers. During this time he added three more cranes to the fleet including importing a 60 tonne crane from the Netherlands and a 130 tonne crane purchased from another crane company in New Zealand.
The next step was purchasing the equipment of another local crane hire business in 2023, doubling the fleet to 20 cranes, six hiabs and 10 transporters. The fleet of cranes consists solely of mobile cranes including the largest crane – an impressive 220 tonne crane with a boom length of 68 metres.
“We could see that this was a great opportunity to not only provide us with scale quickly by boosting our range of cranes, but it also allowed us to develop relationships with an entirely new client base.”
Today Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire is conveniently located in Whakatu, a handy central location to its customers across Hastings, Havelock North and Napier. Aaron, who had always been hands-on in the contracting business, was keen early on to get a deeper understanding of his new business venture and became a qualified crane operator. It also helped him to quickly form relationships with existing and new clients.
“We’ve got a very skilled and experienced team of crane drivers, so I’m not called on as a crane operator all the time, but it’s enjoyable and challenging – especially in Hawke’s Bay with the wide range of jobs we do.” The business has several 10 and 13 tonne cranes known within the industry as ‘little roughies’ which are well suited for small jobs such as lifting commercial air conditioning units onto buildings, erecting frost and wind machines on orchards and vineyards (as they are small enough to fit between the rows of fruit) and lifting swimming pools and house trusses onto tricky building sites.
“They are also small enough to fit inside factory warehouses and cool stores. Their uses are endless when it comes to smaller lifting requirements both for private and commercial use”. All cranes come with the appropriate rigging gear or, if need be, specialist slings, ropes, man cages and spreader bars. Health and Safety is a top priority and Aaron says all equipment is regularly inspected and maintained to the highest standards while the team is always available to provide support and advice to ensure the right equipment is selected for each job.
Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire love a good challenge and will often find a way to safely and efficiently complete a job that other companies have said can’t be done. “We get excited by big challenges whether that be utilising one of our large or small cranes, hiabs or elevated platforms. We will listen to the job brief and then provide our clients with innovative solutions to help achieve the desired goals”. www.hbcraneandplatform.co.nz
