GN Construction: Going from strength to strength one year on from its rebrand

GN Construction has had a storied history in New Zealand for over 13 years, dating back to 2008 when an Australian construction company expanded part of its operations across the ditch.

Despite its roots in Sydney, GN Construction is a New Zealand business, independently run in Aotearoa — and it has proved this time and again with its delivery of successful projects throughout the years.

It began its focus in Christchurch, where it delivered the New Press Building in the central city. It then played a significant role in the rebuild effort after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, where the core leaders of the business developed long-lasting relationships that anchor its culture to this day.

It then shifted its sights to Auckland to better service the North Island market, where it’s since delivered several key projects including the Crest, Eden View and Horizon Apartments, as well as the Alexandra Park redevelopment.

Most recently, the company experienced a separate and exciting internal development: it underwent a rebrand, changing its company title from its original name — commonly (and erroneously) associated with the Australian arm of the company — to the current name, GN Construction.

The company’s managing director Mitchell Blunden says the rebrand, which was completed last year, was planned and executed for a number of reasons.

“A lot of people call us Ganellen, the original name of the Australian operation,” says Mitchell. “But we wanted to distinguish ourselves from this, without severing ourselves from it completely. The change to GN Construction made it simpler, but retained a small connection with the ‘G’ and ‘N’.”

By no means does the rebrand mean that the company has changed its structure, Mitchell stresses. “It was mainly an opportunity for us to get out into the market and connect more with our target market: industry professionals.”

The new and improved GN Construction still has its eye on its overarching vision: to be a reliable construction company that deals with complex commercial, medium-density residential, aged care or industrial projects. A large amount of its work is procured through exclusivity with clients: working together to achieve their development feasibility and assisting with design, methodology and risk management.

“We want to continue to align ourselves with good developers, and we want to develop strong partnerships with them where they know they can come to us and be assured that we can deliver their project vision,” says Mitchell.

GN Construction already has a proven track record of completing such projects and maintaining repeat clients: for example, their recent work on the modern Eden View Apartments in the heart of Dominion Road in Auckland, as well as the XXXII Shelly Beach Road Apartments — which includes nine luxury apartments and a penthouse.

This reflects their focus on high-end medium-density residential buildings — but says nothing of the industrial work the company is also doing: it’s currently helping build 160 industrial units in the Auckland suburb of Mt Wellington.

Many of these projects are done in collaboration with partners that GN Construction has worked with before, and this is a key indicator of its success. The company has a history of being selected as partners on successive projects with repeat clients, and there’s one thing that the company has proved over the years that’s attributable to this pattern, Mitchell says: its reliability.

“We don't want to be the biggest builder — we want to be a reliable builder that has certainty of delivery,” he says.

This is achieved through many different vectors: the company’s established systems and processes, its company culture, and crucially, the involvement of the top-level management in every project.

“We always make sure that when a client engages with us, they aren't passed off to another manager — the directors are involved in the projects, and we understand the detail,” says Mitchell.

“For this reason and many more, we believe that we’re a top choice for projects across commercial, residential and industrial sectors.”

Learn more about GN Construction and its offerings.