At Trinder, our commitment to innovation while also increasing productivity and safety has established us as a trusted engineering partner across a broad range of industries and sectors.
We view our role as enabling stakeholders to better serve their industries and customers by utilizing our extensive experience and expertise in designing, manufacturing, installing, and repairing a substantial range of products and equipment.
Whether your focus is on growth, efficiency, safety, or all of these, you can trust our exceptional engineering solutions to help you reach your goals.
As a proud member of the Trinder family, Waimea Engineering Ltd is a name synonymous with robust heavy transport products and are the only heavy vehicle manufacturing certifiers in the Nelson Tasman Region. Waimea Engineering upholds the legacy of quality and reliability that is at the core of our brand. – Discover more here about Waimea Engineering to join us on the journey of engineering innovation.
We recognise our industry needs and utilise the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 to drive our core values with ongoing improvement to Health and Safety and the wider business operations. We use our employee’s vast knowledge within the engineering industry to facilitate safe work practices and encourage engagement at all levels of the business.
In our organisational policies and actions we are committed to:
Care – eliminating and minimising the exposure of people to hazards, and our effect on the environment, as outlined in our Health and Safety Policy.
People – looking after our people and their safety and well-being; we are proudly accredited with New Zealand’s highest workplace health and safety standard – Tertiary Accreditation.
Products – incorporating safety standards and innovation that improves the safety of the equipment and its operators as a key design factor in all our work.
Environment – ensuring that impact from our manufacturing and products is measured and managed effectively to reduce our environmental footprint, as outlined in our Environmental Policy.
We are proud to have achieved SiteWise GOLD for 2023-2024, and we believe this demonstrates commitment to our Safety Culture whilst providing assurance to our clients that we walk the talk.
For more information on Health and Safety at the Trinder Group and to read our policies see here: Health & Safety at Trinder
OUR HISTORY
A W Trinder was founded in 1948 by the late Jock Trinder as a general engineering workshop.
The workshop was a small dark shed with a dirt floor, situated on the site currently occupied by Super Liquor on Salisbury Road, Richmond. Single-handedly building up the business, Jock and his team built and shifted to a larger premises adjacent to the then Railway Hotel on Gladstone Road and were able to offer an expanded range of services. In the 1950’s, Apprenticeships were being introduced into New Zealand and in 1954 Jock took on his first 2 apprentices – Gerald Holland and Peter Wilde. Trinder was later incorporated in 1958. Much of the early work was farming equipment orientated, with some structural steel building work. Many of the Richmond local halls were erected using a Trinder built hand powered crane that was mounted to a very early model International truck. The type of work broadened and shifted over the years from the farm to the forest, and the size and complexity of structural work went from basic commercial structures to also include architecturally designed masterpieces.
In the mid 1980’s, Jock sold his business to a handful of employees on his retirement. It retained its family atmosphere while expanding capabilities to meet the increasing needs of local industry and the wider community. With a further desire to expand, the business was shifted in 1990 to the building still currently occupied by Trinder on the corner of Gladstone Road and Poutama Street. After working with Phil Kirk on various jobs, it seemed logical to join forces, and in 2000 Waimea Engineering Ltd. was purchased as a wholly owned subsidiary of A W Trinder LTD, enabling the further expansion of heavy transport manufacture and maintenance.
2000 was a big year for Trinder, alongside the purchase of Waimea Engineering, it also saw Kerry Hill step down from the tools, and into the Managing Director role – where he currently resides. A formal training program was implemented in 2003 for the entire staff, and in July 2005, Prime Minister Helen Clark visited acknowledging dedication to staff and training. Clark was very impressed with the achievements, as were the staff because it is not every day that the PM drops in to have a look around. 2004 Trinder Celebrated the retirement of Gerald Holland – The longest serving employee. After achieving his apprenticeship as a boilermaker/welder, Gerald stayed on for a total of 50 years.
2005 Trinder employed a dedicated full time apprentice trainer for one-on-one style training and to help guide the apprentices through their training program.
“We teach them the Trinder Way, as set out in our operations manual. That’s not to say it’s a different way of doing things because it’s not. Rather, it’s a culture thing about doing the whole job and doing it right the first time. I felt that I wasn’t trained very well, learning mostly – and hopefully- from my mistakes. While there’s always an element of that in training, it shouldn’t be the basis of training. It’s far better to be shown the correct way from the outset – either doing it yourself under supervision or watching someone else do it the correct way.” – Kerry Hill.
In 2009, Phil Kirk joined Kerry as a Director of AWT, cementing his good reputation and extensive knowledge within the company. In the years since 2000, Waimea has grown significantly, expanding into some of the workshops in Eden’s Road and becoming the only Heavy Vehicle Manufacturing Certifiers in the Nelson Tasman Region. With innovation and design at the core of the business, a dedicated Research and Innovation department was established in 2019. Professional networks with strong, established links to funding agencies and national research providers became partners.
2023 was another major milestone for the company and after partnering with Coman Construction, the Director’s signed the paperwork to relocate the Trinder workshops to new purpose-built workshops in Coman Drive. The first cut of steel was made in January 2024, and the new premises are set to be completed in December 2024.
