In less than 20 years, Easysteel has seen Metal Skills Ltd grow from a fledging business into one of New Zealand’s leading contract manufacturers of steel products.

The success story began in 1996, when Graeme Bartlett purchased an existing small business. He was joined soon after by his brother-in-law, Dave Blackett. Since then, they’ve grown the business from a “small jobbing shop” into an industry leader with 80+ staff.

Operating from a 6200m2 facility in Auckland’s East Tamaki, they are one of the few sheet metal companies operating 24/7, 5 days a week.

“It’s more profitable to have our big machines running through the night, supervised but unmanned,” says Dave Blackett. “It also gives our customers a better service…our lead time is reduced by 50%.”

“They are one of the few sheet metal companies operating 24/7, 5 days a week.”

Cutting-edge technology

The company has invested in state-of-the-art processing equipment – so they can handle everything from specialised and custom work, through to large-volume production runs.

Their plant includes New Zealand’s first Salvagnini P4 panel folding machine (which can do an incredible 46 folds in 56 seconds). Other equipment includes three Amada turret punches, two robotic welders, and a robotic Astro press brake.

In order to provide a more streamlined service for finished products, Metal Skills also run their own powder-coating line; and have two dedicated delivery trucks.

Their purpose-built ‘green building’ incorporates eco- friendly features such as water recycling and energy-saving technology.

Reciprocal business

The relationship between Easysteel and Metal Skills has also evolved over the years, as the two businesses began doing some reciprocal business.

As well as providing regular laser cutting services for Easysteel, Metal Skills has also been producing motorway crash barriers components for CSP Pacific, which is a division of Fletcher Building.

“It’s a fairly labour-intensive job – involving laser cutting, folding, and robotic welding,” explains Dave. “The products are then sent out for galvanising before coming back to us to do the final assembly.”

Among Metals Skill’s other major customers, they supply metal cabinetry to a large office furniture fit-out supplier.

“We like to add value by providing a completely finished product,” says Dave.

“For this customer, for instance, we assemble the entire storage system and send them out ready-packed.”

Other major areas of business include sorting machines for fruit processing, and robotic packaging systems supplied to engineering companies.