The National Business Review has released its annual Rich List, with a number of transport and automotive industry leaders and families included.
Bruce Plested – $690 million – Executive chairman and founding owner of Mainfreight.
Higgins family – $455 million – New Zealand civil construction company Higgins was founded by Dan Higgins in 1958. The company’s construction business was sold to Fletcher Building in 2016 for $315m and today it has over 1700 staff.
Fulton family – $450 million – Infrastructure construction, roadworks and aggregate supplier company Fulton Hogan was founded by Julius Fulton and Robert Hogan in Dunedin in 1933.
Gough family – $440 million – Gough Group was founded in 1929 as Distributors, dealers and service providers for the Caterpillar brand of heavy equipment.
Richardson family – $330 million – HW Richardson Group founded in 1938 by Robert Richardson and built up by his late grandson Bill. The Bill Richardson Transport World houses hundreds of cars and automobile related curiosities on a 15,000sqm site.
Smith family – $250 million – cranes and construction which includes Christchurch-based company Smith Crane and Construction.
Don Braid – $115 million – Mainfreight group managing director with over 35 years’ experience in the freight industry.
Mark Ching – $65 million – A leader in the vehicle shipping trade, best known for the Armacup service.
Steven Newman – $60 million – Founder and chief executive of transport technology services company ERoad.
Dealers part of list
The Todd family – $4 billion – formed Todd Motor Industries and built an automotive assembly plant in Petone. Bought the New Zealand Mitsubishi franchise in 1970, selling it back to Mitsubishi Motors in the late 1980s.
Alan Gibbs – $590 million – an icon in the industry, Gibbs has developed 11 different automobiles and is the owner of the Gibbs line of amphibious vehicles.
Sir Colin Giltrap – $400 million – New Zealand’s most prominent car dealer and distributor, with 500 staff across 12 Auckland sites.
John Copson – $350 million – Copson is the founder of Autosure New Zealand and co-founder of Provident Insurance.
Spencer family – $220 million – Owners of Hyundai Motors New Zealand.
Peter Coote – $190 million – Coote made his fortune moving millions of vehicles around New Zealand with the Car Distribution Group.
Gibbons family – $170 million – Part owners of the Colonial Motor Company, which owns more than a dozen mainly Ford dealerships, and also deals in Mazda franchises, and tractors and trucks.
Alpe family – $150 million – The Alpe family own Jucy rentals.
Neville Crichton – $150 million – Crichton built Sydney-based Ateco Group, one of New Zealand’s largest used car businesses.
Lionel Rogers – $120 million – Rogers made his fortune in technology, but his interests lies in cars. His Parnell mansion features some of the country’s finest cars, including Ferraris, a Maserati, Bugattis and a ford Model A Tourer.
Wayne Leach – $115 million – Leach owns the Winger group of car dealerships, now one of New Zealand’s largest dealer networks.
Richard Balcombe-Langridge – $110 million – owner of Metropolitan Rentals, operating from a $6.3 million yard on Dominion Road, Mount Eden. He is also an avid prestige car collector.
Paul Kelly – $75 million – 2018 Rich List newcomer Kelly increased his fortune by $25 million this year. Kelly operates a number of dealerships in Christchurch.
Farmer family – $65 million – The Farmer family own Farmer Autovillage, the biggest single-site new vehicle operation in New Zealand.
Rick Armstrong – $60 million – His Armstrong Motor Group owns 13 dealerships across the country, including Auckland City Toyota.
