Client story
Laying the groundwork: how Westcourt Contractors is building pathways for Pasifika workers
Paea and Amelia Havili · Westcourt Contractors
Paea Havili, Director (far left)Senituli Leakona, Project EngineerTrisha Kalia, Site EngineerAmelia Havili, Co-owner and Operations Manager
Paea Havili spent years on Auckland's civil construction sites as a foreman with Fulton Hogan. Alongside the day job, he had a bigger ambition.
“I always had a dream of running a business that would help Pasifika people. I learnt a lot at Fulton Hogan and thought to myself, why not have a crack?”
That decision became Westcourt Contractors (WCL), the Auckland civil contracting business Paea runs with his wife, Amelia. Today it has about eight full-time staff and a network of around 25 contractors, covering drainage, concreting, traffic control and labouring work across the city.
The couple split the business clearly. Amelia runs the office side: she looks after clients and keeps the paperwork in order. Paea is out finding the next job.
“My role is hunting for the work for the boys to deliver, and looking after every project,” he says.
As Westcourt's reputation grew, so did the workload. Before long Paea was running operations, managing people, looking after clients and trying to keep the back end of the business in order, all at once.
“I was trying to organise everything on my own. Getting contracts together for new employees, working out health and safety. We started growing and getting a lot of work, and it got to a point where I couldn't do everything.”
Around that time, Steve Misa from Oyonnx got in touch and the two met. Paea could see there was room to grow. He also knew that growing without the right systems could cause more problems than it solved.
About two years ago, Westcourt started working with Oyonnx. Felila Asiata-Feausi, Oyonnx’s general manager, came on board to build the HR foundations the business needed, including employment contracts and agreements, HR systems, policies and procedures, people management processes and a clearer operational structure.
That took a heavy load off Paea and gave Westcourt a platform to grow.
Oyonnx also worked with Paea on strategy. Like many growing contractors, Westcourt had relied on a small number of key relationships for most of its work. Those relationships were valuable, but depending on them so heavily was a risk. The focus shifted to diversifying the client base and getting the business ready to work with larger organisations.
A key step was gaining Tōtika and SiteWise prequalification. Both are health and safety prequalification schemes that major contractors and public sector clients use to check a subcontractor's capability before engaging them. Oyonnx guided Westcourt through the requirements, strengthened its systems and documentation, and helped prepare the evidence for assessment.
For Paea, the value is simple.
“It's an important thing these days, because Tier 1 companies don't want to go through a lot of paperwork. Felila did a great job on that and it's opened up those doors. When they open our file, they can see we already have our prequals.”
The relationship has also brought new work. Oyonnx has introduced Westcourt to other businesses in its network, including HP Build's Fale project. That Pasifika-focused build for an Auckland Catholic school is bringing together contractors from across the Oyonnx and LM4 Group network.
For a business founded to create opportunities for Pasifika people, it's a fitting partnership.
So, where to from here?
“We're looking at growing more and more, and it's happening right now. We're winning a lot of work.”
With stronger systems behind him, prequalifications that open doors, and a network pointing new work his way, Paea is doing what he left Fulton Hogan to do: building a business that creates opportunities for his people.