When Matt Sanders returned to Hawke’s Bay in 2021 to open a Beca office, he started with a team of four, a desk at Hastings Hive, and a simple ambition: build something genuinely useful for the region.
Five years on, the team has grown to around 20 people, they’ve moved into a dedicated office directly across from Hastings District Council, and they’ve been tested and shaped by one of the most significant natural disasters in New Zealand’s modern history.
Beca is not a name that needs much introduction. One of Australasia’s largest engineering and advisory consultancies, the 105 year-old employee-owned firm has worked across New Zealand for generations. But having a national footprint and having a real presence in a region are two very different things. What Matt set out to build in Hawke’s Bay was the latter.
“We’re not here to shuffle deck chairs or take market share from everyone,” Matt says. “We’re here to find where the capability gaps are, where capacity constraints exist, and fill those, working alongside local partners to get things done.”
The Hawke’s Bay operation has been deliberately built around local people with local relationships, backed by national specialist capability when a project genuinely demands it. A model that sounds simple in theory, but takes real time and trust to make work in practice.
A storm that changed everything
Beca was barely two years into its Hawke’s Bay chapter when Cyclone Gabrielle hit in February 2023. For many businesses, the cyclone was a crisis to survive. For Beca, it became a defining moment.
“We had the relationships built, and then we were able to respond when it really mattered,” Matt reflects. “Within about six months of the cyclone, we had mobilised 120 engineers from across the country to come into Hawke’s Bay to support rebuilding and recovery.”
That deployment was not just about headcount. It demonstrated exactly what a well-embedded local operation connected to national capability can do when a region is under pressure. Local leaders who knew the community and the clients; national specialists who knew how to move fast on complex infrastructure. The combination proved its worth when Hawke’s Bay needed it most.
The relationships forged through that response have lasted. Beca’s work alongside Hastings District Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Napier City Council deepened significantly in the post-Gabrielle period.
One tangible example was Beca’s support of the Silt Recovery Taskforce, established jointly by the Regional Council and Hastings District Council to tackle over five million cubic metres of silt deposited across orchards, farms, roads and residential properties.
Beca helped develop a comprehensive action plan built around six geographic zones, each with dedicated contractors and collection sites, to remove silt from affected properties. Exactly the kind of complex, multi-stakeholder challenge that benefits from an experienced engineering consultancy working shoulder-to-shoulder with councils on the ground.
A new home, across the road from a key client
After starting at Hastings Hive, the shared business hub that gave them a fast and flexible foothold, Beca has now taken up its own space directly opposite Hastings District Council.
A location that tells its own story about where the firm sits in the regional ecosystem, and the proximity is more than symbolic. Hastings District Council is one of several councils with whom Beca has built a strong working relationship, and that closeness reflects an approach to client partnerships that Matt says has always been central to how they operate.
“Our work is all about being alongside our clients,” he says. “Understanding what they need to deliver for their communities, and then finding the right resources to make that happen.”
Built on the right foundations
Beca’s core purpose is to create, design and optimise assets and infrastructure that make everyday better for clients and communities. In Hawke’s Bay, that mission plays out across an impressive range of work.
Transport infrastructure has been a major focus. Beca has been closely involved in the Hawke’s Bay Expressway project and the Waikare Gorge work, bringing national experience to a region that hasn’t historically had to build at that scale. The benefit runs both ways: local engineers gain exposure to complex, high-value delivery, and the capability that builds stays in Hawke’s Bay long after individual projects are complete.
Water is another central thread. As Hawke’s Bay moves toward the establishment of Hawke’s Bay Water, Beca has been active in helping councils prepare, plan, and transition. Fitting, given that Three Waters reform was one of the original drivers for opening the Hawke’s Bay office in the first place.
Energy is a growing market, with Beca’s work with Transpower on the Redclyffe substation rebuild opening a new front. And then there’s the Napier City Library, a $75 million project where Beca is delivering the Building Services and Civil design. When Napier residents eventually walk into that extraordinary civic asset, much of the engineering expertise behind it will have come from a team based 20 minutes down the road in Hastings.
The local-national equation
One of the more interesting questions for a firm like Beca in a regional market is how to balance local accountability with national capability. Matt is clear-eyed about it. Disciplines like geotech, planning and environmental work require people on the ground. Highly specialist or large-scale design is where national resource adds most value, building lasting capability in local teams rather than dependency on outside expertise.
“The expressway is a good example,” Matt says. “NZTA requires certain levels of experience that we just haven’t needed here before. Having national people working alongside our local team raises everyone’s game. We take those learnings and upskill our local team, so the capability stays in-region.”
Looking to the next five
Matt describes the first five years as the establishment phase: building relationships, proving the model, finding where Beca genuinely fits. Now, with that foundation solid, the focus has shifted to what comes next.
The pipeline looks strong. Local government infrastructure investment continues, the NZTA programme remains active, energy projects are emerging, and the transition to Hawke’s Bay Water will generate significant advisory and delivery work. The industrial sector, including food processing and primary industry infrastructure, also remains a core part of the client mix.
“It’s been a successful first five years,” Matt says. “But honestly, the conversations we’re having now, the scale of what’s ahead, the next chapter is going to be even more interesting.”
For a firm that came to Hawke’s Bay to make a difference, not just a margin, that’s exactly the right problem to have.
www.beca.com
