Waikato Business News November/December 2017

TRT CELEBRATES 50 YEARS
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2017
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TRT a great Waikato role model
Hamilton family company Tidd Ross Todd
(TRT) is a fine example of why Waikato
has built a reputation for breeding blue
chip, highly successful businesses with
exceedingly modest profiles.
It takes a very special occasion
to persuade them into
the public spotlight.
For manufacturing engineering
innovation leader
TRT this year there are two
such occasions - its 50th year
in business and the induction
of co-founder, director and
acknowledged engineering
genius Dave Carden into the
New Zealand Road Transport
Hall of Fame.
While TRT quietly gets on
with daily business serving the
transport and construction sectors
in its 33,000 sqm facilities
on Te Rapa’s Maui Street, a
review of its half century reveals
high profile engineering
achievements. They include
regional landmarks the Kaimai
Rail Tunnel (New Zealand’s
longest rail tunnel), TIDD
Crane Carriers, TIDD Logging
Jinker trailers and TIDD Tag
Axle Suspensions.
Other examples of TRT’s
design and engineering skills
include heavy transport trailers
that carry some of Australasia’s
largest equipment,
hydraulic house moving technology,
platform trailers and
elevated work platforms. Being
selected to provide heavy
transport support to the New
Zealand and Australian defence
forces is another highlight.
With 200 staff – some
who have been with the company
for decades – at the
Maui Street headquarters and
manufacturing plant, and
branches in Auckland and
Brisbane, TRT is recognised
within the transport and construction
industries as a clever
innovator with an unparalleled
range of engineering skills to
develop integrated solutions to
TRT executive directors, Bruce and Robert Carden,
leading the next 50-years.
meet the needs of its customers.
Raw steel comes in one
end of the Hamilton plant and
emerges as a fully developed
and assembled engineering
accomplishment out the other
thanks to TRT’s in-house
specialist engineering, design,
and manufacturing teams.
TRT is a turn-key manufacturing
innovator which uses
lean manufacturing for sustained
capability and excels
at special projects and precision
engineering applications,
says managing director Kevin
Chubb.
Certified under ISO
9001:2008, with a multi-million
dollar annual revenue, the
company operates four integrated
businesses: manufacturing
engineering; truck and
trailer parts; mechanical service
and repair and crane sales
and service.
Fully integrated manufacturing
engineering is TRT’s
point of difference and responsible
for about half TRT’s annual
revenue, says Kevin, who
will leave the job soon after 20
years heading the management
team. He says he’s leaving at
“a high point” in TRT’s history,
after five-fold growth in its
operations since 1997.
The company will continue
to be led by Dave’s sons,
executive directors Bruce and
Robert Carden, supported by
Lawrence Baker, the recently
appointed chief operating officer.
TRT has come a long way
from the small trailer manufacturing
business founded
in 1967 by Jack Tidd of Te
Rapa engineering company
Jack Tidd & Co, Jim Ross and
Norm Todd of Ross Todd Motors
& Engineering in Cambridge,
and Dave Carden who
founded Southside Motor and
Engineering in Putaruru.
They called their new company
Tidd Ross Todd. Typically,
Dave Carden, considered
an outstanding engineer by his
peers, “didn’t care about having
his name in lights”, says
Kevin Chubb.
A great character and inspirational
leader who has headed
many large-scale engineering
projects and transport engineering
innovations on both
sides of the Tasman, Dave inspires
the family values and
camaraderie that make TRT a
special company, and which
are reflected in the leadership
style of his sons, Kevin says.
One of the new company’s
first innovations was to modify
a Bedford truck to operate as
a mobile crane. In 1970 Dave
Carden put his fledgling company
on the map again by figuring
out how to bend the steel
beams supporting the proposed
8.8 km-long Kaimai rail
tunnel. He built a machine to
do the job and produced 8000
beams in the next eight years
of the project.
Meantime the young company
was steadily developing
heavy transport trailer technology
that is still a cornerstone
of the business. In early 1968
the TIDD Crane Carrier made
its market debut, followed
by the TIDD Hydrasteer in
1982 and the TIDD Hydraulic
House Mover in 1988.
“In these early years, TRT
Continued on page 30
Te Rapa Straight head office 1967-1997, with TIDD Crane Carriers on display. Kaimai tunnel beams under construction, 1971.
Tidd Hydrasteer a trailer innovation, 1982 used by Dale freightways in the Think Big Project.
TRT parts shownroom 1970’s, Te Rapa, Hamilton.