About Us
OVER 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Established in Hawkes Bay in 1967 by John Bridgeman, Bridgeman Concrete now has six plants across the North Island, with over 70 trucks and 100 employees.
With its unique combination of honouring traditional family values whilst staying one step ahead of ever-changing technology, Bridgeman Concrete is ‘set’ to embrace more growth for the next 50 years, and beyond.
Under the leadership of Patrick Bridgeman, John Bridgeman’s son, the company continues to honour the core and heart of Bridgeman Concrete to provide impeccable yet down-to-earth customer service, then adds technology to produce the best cement in the country.
The state-of-the-art formula has the lowest carbon emissions and is unique to New Zealand. Every batch is consistent and made to perfection for every client and project – from the smallest of backyard patios to the largest commercial building.
Since taking the reins in 2018, Patrick has catapulted the company to the next level, taking a measured but progressive approach and continuing to evolve to ensure the best product and practices in the industry.
The values that the company was founded on remain as important to Patrick as they were to his father. This is evident in the way Bridgeman Concrete treats its staff and clients, as well as in the community programmes it has set up, which enable those who need it most the chance to achieve great things and make a positive contribution to society.
How It All Started
Trusty No. 10
Many of the first trucks required some re-painting. This particular truck became number 10 in the fleet.
The bowl and chassis were hand-painted by brush by Keith Watts at the Hastings plant.
The firm was first set up as Hastings Ready Mix Ltd on part of the Post Office lines depot site to supply concrete for that project.
Two mixer-truck units were initially operated by the company, which moved later in the year to a site on Omahu Road. At this time bagged cement was still being used.
A second move was made about 18 months later to the site owned by John's father, P. J. Bridgeman, after a huge amount of concrete had been mixed for the grandstand built by his father's firm at the Tomoana showgrounds.
The majority of John’s work was, by that time, moving more to the concreting business as it expanded, with less emphasis on his building firm. On the site owned by P. J. Bridgeman, the company acquired its first bulk cement silo, with a capacity of 15 tonnes.
However, soon afterwards, with an expanding fleet and larger trucks carrying bulk cement, the silo proved inadequate, and the company bought a bulk cement storage plant at Awatoto from Wilsons Cement Company.
The Awatoto silos were too big to transport out of the district, but were moved to the current Bridgeman Concrete Hastings site on Omahu Rd, to provide storage capacity of 200 tonnes of cement.
Early Contracts
In the mid to late eighties, Bridgeman Concrete supplied concrete to the Ohaaki Power Project Cooling Tower.
This natural draft cooling tower is the only one of its kind in New Zealand. It stands 105 metres tall, 75 metres diameter at the base and 45 metres diameter at the top, It can be clearly seen on the trip from Rotorua to Taupo through Broadlands.
The reinforced concrete shell is only 160mm thick for much of its height. The distinctive hyperbolic shape gives both strength and increased thermal efficiency.
The design of seismic resistance, the detailed study of concrete technology and the use of epoxy-coated reinforcing were design features of the project.
This structure received the 1988 Concrete Award.
Here is where a power line was being constructed between Bunnythorpe, Whakatu and the Turangi area, helicopters were used to supply concrete for the foundations of the electricity pylons.
Ohaaki Power Station
Cooling Tower
Napier
Plant in Austin Street, Napier
The Napier plant was opened in 1971, when Mr P. J. Bridgeman, grandfather of today's Managing Director Patrick Bridgeman, won the contract to supply ready-mixed concrete for the theatre block at Napier Hospital.
Tom Byrne was hired as the Napier branch manager, and a site in Austin St, Onekawa, became the base of operations for the project.
This was the first large project in Napier, with previous contracts having been supplied from the Hastings plant.
The company also operated a plant for a short time in Gisborne in the early 1980s and also had a satellite plant operating near Wairoa for the Waihi dam project, built for the Wairoa Electric Power Board.
A satellite plant was also operated beside the Napier-Taupo highway deviation at the Kiwis, on the north-eastern side of the Mohaka River bridge.
Tauranga & Hamilton
John Bridgeman became involved with Bryce Ready Mix in Greerton, Tauranga and bought out the plant in the very late 1980’s. He sent two trucks up from Hastings to add to the fleet that was already in Tauranga.
Over the years, Bridgeman Concrete Tauranga had been involved in several recognisable local landmarks including the Twin Towers at The Mount and the large parking building at Bayfair.
In 1993, John Bridgeman took over a run-down concrete plant in Hamilton. The plant, at the time, had a 1.8m³ truck and two other trucks that could carry 4.6m³ loads.
Bridgeman Concrete spent some time upgrading the plant and also purchased some land next to the original plant for the aggregate bins. They also added an extra agg hopper and silo.
The original silo was taken down and replaced in early 1999 and the truck fleet grew from the original 3 trucks to a fleet of eight.
Oceanside Resort & Twin Towers,
Mount Maunganui
Hamilton Plant, 1999
Rotorua
Rotorua Plant,
approx. early 2000's
Bridgeman Concrete built the Rotorua plant in Hastings, including the silo legs, and transported them to the site.
They erected the plant on the site without the silo base, then proceeded to make concrete for the silo base using the plant and 1-tonne bags of imported cement. Bridgeman Concrete then poured the hopper base in the same fashion.
Approximately 2 days later, the silo legs were bolted in place, and the silo was erected. The entire plant was then swivelled into place and the plant became operational.
Previous to 1995, John Bridgeman was in partnership with Jacksons in Rotorua. John owned the plant and Snow Jackson owned the land and the concrete trucks.
John Bridgeman bought the concrete trucks off Snow Jackson in 1995, and ran the concrete operation in Rotorua under Bridgeman Concrete Ltd as it is today.
Auckland
There are three plants located in Auckland: Papakura, East Tamaki and City West.
Papakura started production at their Boundary Rd site in Papakura in August 1999 with current plant manager Nick Haycock, to supply concrete for Wilco pre-cast.
The land was leased off Wilco to build the plant, based on a handshake deal that still exists today with Keith Sinclair, founder of Wilco Precast and a plant was built. Keith's son Andrew is now Managing Director of Wilco Precast and the relationship is as strong as ever.
In 2004, Bridgeman Concrete bought some land from Kaipara Ltd in East Tamaki. It was an old quarry that had been filled in. Work started on building the plant with the requirement that the entire area be concreted before supplying concrete outside the yard.
On the 1st of April 2004, the initial earthworks began, followed by extensive drainage.
By the end of July 2004, the concrete for the base of the main silo was poured.
On November 3rd 2004, the first load of concrete was batched at the East Tamaki plant for the yard. Concrete continued to be batched for yard slabs, settlement ponds and aggregate storage.
On April 18th 2005, Bridgeman Concrete East Tamaki produced its first concrete for the public, having adhered to the original agreement to have the yard fully concreted before sending concrete out the gate. The work on improving the site and buildings continued for some time.
Bridgeman Concrete East Tamaki is the largest concrete plant in the Bridgeman group.
By 2015, ever-increasing traffic congestion was starting to seriously impact the service we were able to offer our customers, and this meant that a third Auckland plant was now well overdue.
The site right next to the North Western motorway on the Rosebank Road junction was ideal, not only for its location - being less than 10 minutes travel time from the Auckland CBD, but also for having previously been the site for McCullum’s Concrete, and then Allied Concrete, before they closed the site almost 5 years previously.
Bridgeman Concrete was fortunate that a good deal of the existing infrastructure was still intact, allowing us to establish the new plant in a relatively short time with minimal capital investment.
The initial ground testing for the silo foundations was carried out in late January and Bridgeman Concrete started producing concrete in July 2016.
Bridgeman Concrete are now able to supply large jobs from the City West plant and the East Tamaki plant simultaneously.
Papakura Plant,
Early Construction
East Tamaki Plant
Papakura Plant, Today
City West Plant