NationWide’s new head office

NWH was founded by Doug Padman and John Wilton, and has grown quickly to become a specialist in off-road and project specific trucks, the bulk of which are all-wheel-drive. While four-wheel-drives are offered, the fleet strength is in the heavier all-wheel-drive trucks (mainly Isuzu and International), and a sister company is the distributor of International 4x4 and 6x6 trucks in Australia (on-road trucks are sold under the Caterpillar brand in Australia).

The move to a new head office is part of a transition of ownership for NWH, with Omni Technical Solutions (Omni) now holding a majority interest in the business. The previous head office was located for proximity to the founders, but the new head office is strategically located with virtually direct access to the Logan Motorway, providing ready access to the Pacific Highway, Warrego Highway and New England Highway, and to the Bruce Highway via the Gateway Arterial Road.

Like the NWH facilities in Rutherford (Hunter Valley), Geraldton and Rockhampton, the Heathwood facility has excellent capabilities for maintaining the fleet, supplemented by field service vehicles and “mother ship” maintenance facilities that are located on site to support the vehicles on major projects.

However the Heathwood facility is unusual in providing significant office space suitable for accommodating head office support staff, in addition to having a large warehouse/workshop area.

CEO Darren Woodley states, “The field support facilities are an area where NationWide differentiates itself from its competition. We believe that having experienced company staff on hand to maintain the vehicles provides significant benefits for the customer in greater reliability and reduced downtime.”

Woodley was hired as part of the ownership transition, having previously overseen the transition of Franna Cranes from a privately owned Queensland business to becoming a division of the international crane and construction equipment conglomerate Terex.

Woodley believes that the new ownership provides NWH with the access to capital to continue to grow with market demands and consider other opportunities, while retaining the service and other values that have provided the strong growth to date.

Those values include innovation such as fitting a high proportion of vehicles with Palfinger cranes (the Rockhampton branch is a Palfinger agent), developing bodies (including modular bodies) to suit various applications and offering a 4x4 bus option.

The Omni connection also provides NWH with access to world’s best practice and technical support programs for vehicle management.

For more information visit: www.nationwidehire.com.au