Transpecs Fleet Focus

Suburban sprawl shifts spreaders

When Pat Smith started out in business nearly 60 years ago, he was based in Massey, on the northwestern edge of Auckland.

Pretty soon though he moved his P.G. Smith Ltd bulk  groundspreading operation north – to Brigham’s Creek. Another few years on, he moved it on again – this time to Waimauku. In 1985, he shifted the company one more time – yep north again. This time to Helensville – into its fourth new home in 32 years.

Since then P.G. Smith has looked north twice more – opening a Wellsford depot around 1990…and then, about five years ago, finally going about as far north as you can go, with the purchase of a groundspreading business in Kerikeri, covering most of upper Northland.

It’s not that Pat Smith’s nomadic….just that his business happened to be based on the fringes of Auckland….a city notorious for its urban sprawl. And that, of course, means that a business founded on spreading bulk fertiliser on farms has to keep moving too – staying just ahead of the irresistible tsunami of subdivisions rippling outwards from Auckland’s heart.

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