Since the sale of their construction business for $315 million in 2016, Palmerston North’s Higgins family has kept a low profile as they consolidate their readymix concrete and property interests.
The Higgins story began in 1926 when Dan Higgins arrived from Ireland to find some land and start farming. However, the Depression put paid to those plans, so he took up a shovel and began work as a drain-laying and roading contractor, who was known to heat bitumen in a roadside kettle to pave some of the country’s first state highways.
The Higgins Group eventually grew to become a vertically integrated and nationwide business that employed 1600 people when it was taken over by Fletcher Building.
However, the family retained a 40-year-old ready-mix concrete company that employs 70 staff in seven lower North Island locations.
The Fletcher sale prompted a reshuffle of the family business interests, with the formation of several new companies including Higgins Concrete, HFH Properties and Hifarm Ltd. In all cases, ownership traces back to Higgins Family Holdings whose shares are neatly divided between Dan’s three sons – Patrick, Bernard and beneficiaries of their late brother Michael.
The Higgins also manage extensive property interests through the jointly owned Hibros Ltd, which has shareholdings in 14 different investment vehicles including joint ventures with family friend and fellow Rich Lister Paul Adams, who operates Tauranga-based Carrus Corporation.
Knighted in 2011 for services to philanthropy and the community, Sir Patrick Higgins was also inducted into the Business Hall of Fame and recalls how he grew up listening to his parents, Dan and Phyllis, talk about business at the kitchen table.
The Higgins family also embraces philanthropy and have been generous contributors for many years to Manawatu Rugby, the Arohanui Hospice and the Cancer Society.