Downer New Zealand

• Date founded: 5 July 1933
• Industry: Engineering and construction
• Corporate headquarters: Auckland, New Zealand
• Type: Private

Downer New Zealand Limited is a privately held engineering and infrastructures services company headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. Founded as Downer and Company in 1933, it became a subsidiary of the publicly held Downer EDI, which is headquartered in North Ryde, Australia, after a merger with Evans Deakin Industries (EDI) in 2001.

Downer's services span the transport, construction, mining and energy sectors. Transportation services include the design, construction and maintenance of roads, wharves, marine structures and other facilities, as well as railway maintenance. The company provides mine-related construction and mining operation services, such as open-cut mining, underground mining, contract mining and mineral separation and processing. Other mine-related services include mine planning and design, mine closure and rehabilitation, and mining asset management. Downer also provides planning, constructing, operating and maintaining, and decommissioning services for waste and wastewater treatment, pumping and water transfer, and power and gas networks. It designs, builds and maintains wind farms, wind turbine sites, solar farms and energy plants.

Examples of Downer's maintenance and infrastructure projects include the installation of telecommunications fibres in the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa; maintenance, marking and resurfacing of Otago's highway network; the resealing of the Southern Motorway pavement and the maintenance of the Dunedin mud tanks.

History

Arnold Fielder Downer founded Downer and Company in Wellington, New Zealand, on 5 July 1933 with engineers and builders Arch McLean, George McLean and Billy Mill. A World War I veteran and a civil engineer who had worked for the New Zealand Public Works Department, Downer met his business partners while serving as the project manager for Hansford & Mills Construction Company's construction of a tunnel through Mount Victoria in Wellington. Downer and Company's first project was tunnelling and construction work for Dunedin's Waipori hydroelectric project. Its successful completion led to other projects, including the Homer Tunnel and construction work at Cobb River.

Within a few years Downer had purchased earth-moving equipment such as crawler tractors and expanded into earthwork projects. The company built several airfields in New Zealand. During World War II it built airfields in Tonga, the Cook Islands and other Pacific islands, including an airfield in Fiji in a joint venture with the United States. It helped construct power stations and lake outlet control projects and pioneered open-cut coal mining in Stockton and Huntly.

After the war Downer's business continued to grow, in part by taking on several international joint ventures. These included construction work on the Lower Nihotupu Dam, the Rimutaka rail tunnel, the Roxburgh hydroelectric works, the Wellington-Porirua motorway, the Wairakei power station, Momona Airport and Starship Children's Hospital. In 1954 Downer and Company merged with William Cable Holdings and became a subsidiary of the newly formed parent company.

In 1962 William Cable Holdings and A. & G. Price Limited, a New Zealand engineering firm and locomotive manufacturer, merged. Two years later the parent company changed its name to Cable, Price, Downer, and Arnold Downer became director, serving until 1970. The company continued to grow, particularly during the construction boom in New Zealand in the 1970s, when it worked on the Terrace Tunnel, Wapiuna mine, the Wairoa Dam and the Rangipo Tunnel.

A series of mergers and acquisitions followed during the 1990s and early 2000s. Cable, Price, Downer merged with Hong Kong engineering and construction company Paul Y.ITC in 1994, moving ownership abroad. This was followed by the 1996 purchase of Works Civil Construction, a New Zealand state-owned enterprise that had been the Public Works Department before being privatised. Downer purchased the major Australian mining company Roche Brothers in 1997. The parent company went public in 1998, with shares listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Additional acquisitions included the road contractor Technic Group in 1998 and the sealing and road-maintenance operator Bitumix in the early 2000s. In March 2001 Cable, Price, Downer and Evans Deakin Industries merged to form Downer EDI Group, headquartered in Australia and listed on the ASX. The NZ subsidiary of the Downer EDI Group was known as Downer EDI Works until 2011, when it changed its name to Downer New Zealand.

Downer EDI continued to expand its position as a major provider of engineering and infrastructure services in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. Among its later major acquisitions were Stork Electrical in 2003, engineering firm QCC Resources and mining company Snowden Consulting Group in 2004, the road-surfacing company Emoleum in 2006, infrastructure-maintenance provider Excell in 2008, utility contractor Tenix in 2014 and construction company Hawkins in 2017.

In 2020, in a hostile takeover, Downer acquired Spotless Group Holdings for $1.2 billion. It was the largest acquisition in the company's history. Spotless provides healthy, quality food services to employees, hospital patients, school children, and others. The following year, Downer sold its Open Cut Mining East business to complete its divestment of mining businesses. The company also merged its defense segments into Downer Defence. These segments included Downer Professional Services; Base and Estate Management; and Estate Development and Base Upgrades. Downer Defence offers its services to the Department of Defence, the Australian Defence Force, and Commonwealth Agencies.

Impact

Downer New Zealand is among the most prominent engineering and construction companies in New Zealand. Its projects across such varied fields such as infrastructure, transportation, utilities, communications and mining directly affect people every day, in addition to having significant economic impacts. Its relationship to the larger Downer Group provides additional financial clout and international connection.

A major employer, Downer has made efforts to be socially and environmentally responsible. Its Zero Harm initiative promotes employee safety and seeks to minimise the environmental impact of its activities. It offers internships, apprenticeships and leadership programs to help individuals develop their talent. Support structures such as mentor programs and networking groups also help new employees transition into the business. In an effort to be more diverse and inclusive, Downer New Zealand launched Empowering Māori Leaders in 2015. The programme identifies potential leaders among Downer's Māori employees and provides workshops to help them develop leadership skills. Graduates then mentor new participants. In 2017 the company's joint venture with the Waikato District Council, the Waikato District Alliance, won the 2017 Local Government NZ Chorus Excellence Award for best practice in infrastructure management. The company maintained a commitment to sustainability. The Downer received two awards in 2019 for sustainability and customer service from the Australasian Railway Association. The following year, it was recognized at the 2020 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards ceremony for the Cedar Grove Environmental Centre and the Newcastle Light Rail project. In 2022, Downer New Zealand won the Outstanding Achievement for Infrastructure Sustainability Operations Award for its initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022 and 2023, Downer was recognized as the Employer of Choice by the Australian Business Awards. The company was named Prime Defence Contractor of the Year in 2024.

Bibliography

"Back for the Long Haul." Downer Group, 13 Mar. 2024, www.downergroup.com/back-for-the-long-haul. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Company History." Downer Group, 2017, www.downergroup.com/company-history. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

"Downer New Zealand: Emerging Diversity and Inclusion Award Winner." Diversity Works, diversityworksnz.org.nz/diversity-awards/2016-winners-and-entrants/emerging-diversity-and-inclusion/downer-new-zealand. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

Gibson, Anne. "McConnells Selling Hawkins to Australian-Headquartered Downer." NZHerald.co.nz, 8 Mar. 2017, www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c‗id=3&objectid=11814265. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

Lowe, Peter. "Downer, Arnold Fielder." Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1998. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4d16/downer-arnold-fielder. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

Naidu, Vijay. "Paying Respect to Arnold Downer's Legacy." Contractor, 2 Feb. 2015, contractormag.co.nz/contractor/contractor-comment/arnold-downer. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

Sivignon, Cherie. "Downer Wins Nelson-Tasman Maintenance Contract." Stuff, 20 May 2017, www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/92788476/Downer-wins-Nelson-Tasman-road-maintenance-contract. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.