We're A Family Business

A company culture that fosters pride, respect and communication has seen Benmax group become a leading mechanical services provider on both sides of the Tasman, under the direction of managing director Scott Polsen.

- Chrissie Mcclatchie 

As an avid reader of autobiographies that tackle tales of adversity, Scott Polsen must have heard plenty of hardship stories firsthand in the aftermath of the devastating magnitude 6.3 earthquake that shook Christchurch in 2011. The Managing Director of Benmax Group had found himself in the New Zealand city at the invitation of a client. “After we had travelled there a few times, it became obvious to us that they really needed some help and expertise to deliver some of their larger technical projects,” Scott explains.

By 2013, the Canberra-based mechanical construction company had established an office in Christchurch, its first outside the Australian capital. “Culturally, we felt an affinity with the way that they operated there,” he says, explaining that business was much more relationship-driven and less contractual in the South Island’s largest city. “Which is exactly how we like to operate.”

One of Benmax’s first jobs there was the Arts Centre of Christchurch, a collection of Category 1 heritage-listed buildings on a site that once housed the University of Canterbury. “It had suffered a lot of damage and, at the time, was the largest heritage rebuild in the world,” he says, calling the project “amazing”. “It wasn’t of big monetary value for us, but the prestige of working on buildings that are 200 years old was great. That’s something that resonates with our people. They like to work on projects that actually mean something.”