News

40 Years of Trading

Warren Smith & Partners – Hydraulic, Fire, Civil & Water Consulting Engineers
Commence 40 years of Trading

Warren Smith

 

Today the 10th of August marks a significant milestone for Warren Smith & Partners as we will commence our 40th year of trading. As the founding director, I started in 1981 with the goal of wanting our company to be the best of the best. Our objectives and core values from day one were and still are:

The company started with a total of three people which included my wife Elizabeth, secretary and accounts, one draftsman and myself with only a 10 storey residential project at Double Bay on our books. I undertook a colossal amount of marketing to get the message out that we are good at what we do and would deliver a high-quality service demonstrating to architects, developers, builders and government agencies that we would not let them down.

It was a slow and relentless grind in procuring work and then designing that work, and we gradually started to win more projects of a medium size and I kept telling our staff that we needed to win one major project, which we called the Big One, which would give us better cash flow and security.

In 1984, we were awarded the Hydraulic and Fire Engineering Consultancy Services for the 34-storey 580 George Street Commercial building which was our first major project and that old saying that ‘success breeds success’ came into play as not long after we also were awarded the Zenith Centre Chatswood Commercial Twin Tower and the 141 Walker Street, North Sydney commercial projects.

The work on multiple other major and significant projects across all sectors has flowed on to present day as a result of demonstrating our capability, expertise and performance.

Since 1983, Warren Smith & Partners has enjoyed a long history of involvement with the initial development, and current redevelopment of Darling Harbour, and we have been involved with the first Convention Centre, Harbourside Festival Marketplace, Sofitel Hotel, Barangaroo Commercial Towers & Residential Towers, Barangaroo Reserve, Darling Walk Commonwealth Bank Twin Towers, Hickson Road and the Sydney Metro station.

Overall, since commencement, we have been involved with over 7,000 projects of all type and scale which is a tribute to all of our highly valued engineers, designers and support personnel.

We are very proud of our retention of key staff with 40% of our team of 52 having been with the company for over 10 years. We have always invested heavily in our people and we are committed to the development of our team, to build knowledge and skills, investing in the engineers of the future.

Our Directors & Partners are hands on, and you will find them at the front of every project backed by a professionally qualified and effective team. Several of our senior staff are involved in peak industry bodies and provide input writing Australian Standards which gives our business foresight into upcoming statutory changes which help to future proof our clients’ developments against coming changes, paving the way for a higher quality of built environment for all.

Looking back over the forty years, people have regularly said to me that I must be very proud of what we have achieved. My reply is not proud but extremely pleased as the secret to success, being a sporting team or business, is to surround yourself with good people who all want to win and this is what we have done.

I would like to thank everyone that we have worked with since inception. I would also like to acknowledge all the staff that have contributed greatly to the success of the business over this time. I will raise a glass, or two, over lunch today to all people and friends we have worked with over so many years.

Best wishes to all, always be positive and don’t let the current situation get you down and remember that “good players” will always find a way to win.

Warren Smith
Managing Director,
Warren Smith and Partners

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Warren Smith Consulting Engineers