A&G Rises Price again Ltd

After 149 years of trading, one of New Zealand’s largest and oldest engineering companies, A&G Price was put into voluntary liquidation in July 2017.

However, Liquidator Gareth Hoole of Ecovis KGA could see the operation’s continuing potential and had the foresight to reopen the entire plant, not only to fulfil partially completed orders, but to continue to trade by taking on new orders. This, Hoole reasoned, meant the company could be sold as a going concern.

However, eight months and a dozen or so interested parties later, it became very apparent that A&G Price was a much bigger entity than most were willing to take on. Except for Chris and Jackie Reeve; they alone could see the potential in the company and the associated benefit to the whole Thames community. They stepped up and purchased the entire company.

Soon the 3 rd April in its 150 th year, A& G Price Ltd officially reopened with a team of 34 loyal staff who had kept the name alive for the previous eight months.

None of the equipment had been removed during the liquidation so the company was immediately in full capability to service the engineering needs of medium and heavy industry.

A& G Price is the only one-stop heavy engineering shop in New Zealand – and arguably Australia – with a fully-integrated engineering works that includes design and project management, ferrous and nonferrous foundry with a melt capacity to 10 tonne, computercontrolled high temperature heat treatment, full machine, fabrication, fitting, NDT, blasting and paint shops all on the one site.

Utilising a library of reference material that would be the envy of most consultancies and backed by the expertise captured in a work archive of more than 100,000 technical drawings spanning 150 years, A& G Price Ltd has the ability to bring customer’s concepts to reality, or improve on existing machinery to maximise production.

The foundry has the ability to produce castings from as small as 300 grams in all grades of cast Iron, SG iron and steel, most common grades of stainless steel, brass and bronze. All of these grades can be welded in their 104- metre long fabrication shop, with 20-tonne lifting capacity and full complement of presses and plate processing machinery, welding technicians ticketed to ASME IV and a wealth of knowledge spanning three centuries for fabricating exotic materials, weld overlaying worn- out equipment or welding dissimilar grades of material–A& G Price has the ability to undertake all welding requirements to the highest standards.

These components can then be machined in its large machine shop capable of manufacturing complex components a few mm’s in size to CNC milling machines up to 10 metres long and turning capacity to 6.15 metres diameter x 40 tonnes. With highly- skilled staff experienced in handling and machining large heavy items or smaller mass produced components, customers can be assured all their requirements will be delivered in spec and fit for purpose, promises the company.

The entire works is certified to operate under ISO9001 2015. Its QA department includes fully- qualified NDT technicians for MPI, dye penetrant and ultrasonic inspection, and can offer full traceability and compliance to any standard and acceptance level. This is common- place for military, rail and hydroelectric customers but is becoming more commonplace as other industries become conscious of the cost of downtime and the benefits of receiving quality components.