Entec Expands to Australia

Entec is pleased to announce the establishment of our newest expansion, Entec Services Australia Pty Ltd is now up and running and open for business in Australia!

Entec has been trading in New Zealand since 1982 and has always remained fully focused on the domestic market. However, the runaway success of our Prefabricated Plant Room business over the past seven years has given us the impetus to expand internationally. Entec’s Director of Future Business Bob Weston reflects, “We’ve been proactively diversifying and evolving Entec’s business streams for the past 16 years. This is imperative to de-risk our business, and to provide new horizons for personal growth for our wonderful people.”

NZ background

As long-term readers of our company updates will know, Entec has evolved from its original roots in rotating equipment such as gas engines and compressors, into industrial instrumentation and electrical solutions, and gas detection. We remain 100% committed to all of this in New Zealand market. Entec’s current team is around 125 permanent employees, supplemented with specialist subcontractors to meet peak demands. We are spread across our sites in New Plymouth, Taupo and Auckland.

Having successfully developed new business streams in manufactured products, mainly LV switchboards, control and other electrical panels, and prefabricated plant rooms, we now see a tremendous opportunity to expand into the large, diverse and vibrant market in Australia. Rob Evans, Entec’s CEO, says “This is an exciting opportunity – we’re really proud of the quality of workmanship we provide across New Zealand, and we see awesome potential to replicate that into Australia.”

Australian operations

Entec’s Australian business is based in Brisbane, but we will operate nationwide. Management of the business is initially being run as an extension of the Entec NZ business by our existing board and management team, and we are in the process of designing and recruiting for the new in-country roles required to meet our growth expectations.

We are being selective in the parts of Entec’s NZ operations that we establish in our new Australian entity. From the outset, we are concentrating on three distinct but complementary offerings:

Prefabricated plant rooms

With more than 70 buildings designed, manufactured, and installed on-site, Entec has established a very strong market share in New Zealand. The buildings we’ve produced have gone into diverse applications such as grid-connection substations (e.g. MV connections for new solar farms and new substations for electrical distribution networks), switchrooms (e.g. motor drive and control rooms for water pumping and gas compression facilities), plus some more niche applications such as server rooms and enclosures for high-current charging equipment for electric ferries.

We’ve learnt substantial lessons from each of these builds, and we are taking this very practical experience into the Australian market. Initially, our design and engineering works will be delivered from our manufacturing base in Taranaki, with local fabrication, building works and electrical fit-out works to be carried out in our manufacturing facility in Darra, in the south-west of Brisbane.

LV switchboards and electrical panels

Entec’s switchboard and panel building department – branded as TCE Controls – was established in 2016. This complements our prefabricated plant room business very nicely, with many customers enjoying the benefits of a one-stop shop approach; coordinated scheduling and streamlined procurement. The fact that our switchboards and panels are manufactured in the same facility as our prefabricated rooms minimises schedule risk and transportation damage.

Entec has successfully built and delivered numerous switchboards and panels for export into Australia. Where the client sees the benefit in this approach and the schedule allows for NZ-based manufacture, we will continue this method. However, we are also working with Australian-based switchboard builders and are comfortable in procuring these items within Australia where preferred, and also in incorporating client-issued items into our prefabricated builds. We’re flexible!

Instrumentation & Electrical labour supply

Entec has built a fantastic team of industrial I&E tradespeople who deliver successful, safe and high-quality projects and maintenance services across all of New Zealand. We are a very vertically integrated team which extends from estimating, design and project management, through all levels of trades from construction supervisors & QA coordinators through to 1^st year apprentices. We also have a great network of specialist subcontractors which allows us to access a larger and wider talent pool, with many complementary specialties.

Part of Entec’s Australian offering is the supply of this labour onto projects and maintenance scopes in Australia. We have a member of our management team dedicated to establishing these labour resourcing opportunities.

Up and running

We’ve been making frequent visits to Australia throughout 2025 and building an excellent network of contacts and client prospects. The website www.entecservices.com.au is live, and we’ve delivered our first prefabricated switchrooms and switchboards into the Queensland market over the course of this past year.

We are open for business!