The Extra 1%
Going the extra mile and putting in the extra 1% in everything you do is a principle that Vast Earthworks and Civil has embedded in its business, leading to more opportunities, building a trusted reputation, and resulting in exponential growth. Attach2 caught up with Vast Earthworks to find out how.
From humble beginnings
Vast Earthworks and Civil has experienced massive expansion since its humble inception in 2018. Its focus on building strong relationships with staff and clients, as well as partnering with like-minded businesses, has enabled the business to overcome industry challenges that many others in the same field have struggled with. The pride and care for the company and its people is clear.
Attach2 are on site at Burgman Collage in Canberra to talk to Co-Directors Jon Lorenz and Jayden Craft. Having recently completed a company-wide photoshoot showcasing all their operators and machines, it’s allowed them to reflect on how far they have come and where they hope to go, including the speed at which they have scaled over the past few years.
Jon, who started the company in 2018, completed an apprenticeship as an electrician and spent around 10 years in the gas industry, gaining valuable experience in earthmoving and civil engineering.
“I saw a bit of a gap in the market and started Vast Earthworks and Civil. It evolved, and my business partner Jayden joined two years into the journey. We've really grown and turned into a one -stop civil shop.”
With his dad having his own building company, Jon grew up on construction sites. His work ethic evolved from a young age, and watching his father run a business gave him the drive to have a go himself.
“Without learning that as a young fella and watching that growing up, I probably wouldn't be where I am today,” he tells us.
Jayden had a similar background growing up, with his industry experience stemming from family roots. As a second-generation earthmover, he also wanted to go out on his own.
“I came into the company around 2020. We aligned in our views and where we wanted to take the company so struck up a deal. I've been a director for the last six years now,” says Jayden.
Vast in name, and vast in nature – it’s almost like the vision for the company was from the get-go, although it started from humble beginnings - set out the back of a smaller yard, eventually moving to someone else’s even bigger yard.
“We did the right jobs for the right people with the right margins, and the right equipment, which has allowed us to obtain our own yard. From there, we have been able to scale up,” he explains.
“Putting the right people in the right positions has allowed us to get some of this nice machinery that we have here behind us. It allows us to do more work and provide better jobs for more families in the Canberra region.”
Being locally owned and operated, reputation is important to Jon and Jayden, as well as focusing on the 1%. “We're really big about it. Everything we do, we try to think about it, we do it efficiently, and we do it safely. The company's just grown through that customer service,” Jon tells us. Both directors credit their strong customer focus for where they are today.
“Since the company started, and the steps we've taken, it's generally through our customer focus. Everything that drives us is making sure that when you get Vast on site, you’re going to get the best outcome.”
“I'm most proud of Vast Earthworks and Civil when I think about our team,” Jon says. “We've built an incredible team. Everyone really cares about the company image and what we do. We're super proud of our fleet. We're trying to create something a bit different in the industry where we invest in our employees and our fleet, and it's something that we're proud of.”
Staying local
“We're fortunate that we don't need to travel outside of the Canberra region. There's enough work here; we have a good client base. Our team's here, so we try to stay as local as we can,” Jon explains.
“A lot of our employees are quite a bit younger; they have young families, and that just makes it less appealing for us to want to go too far, to take them away from their families.”
The business, although it has grown exponentially over the past 8 years, still considers itself tight knit. With everyone working short distances, operational costs are kept down, allowing them to spin into other sectors locally.
Starting off with just earthmoving, house cuts, and basements, they found that relying on Mother Nature’s unpredictable schedule to get work done became challenging. They decided to live up to their name and diversify with the ultimate goal of being known as a one-stop civil shop.
Now doing full civil packages, they do everything you can think of - including concrete, hydraulics, earthworks, structural steel, electrical, landscaping, civil carparks, form working, and more! Whatever you throw at them, chances are they can do it – they love a challenge!
“We generally try to do everything under the one banner,” Jayden says. “It services more of our clients, gives us a bigger clientele, and it's less headaches for them on the back end.”
Vast’s strategy is clearly paying off, with major clients in the Canberra region including big names such as Monarch Building and Projects Building, as well as Tier 1s such as Built and Lend Lease.
Jayden elaborates. “Pretty much anyone that comes into town with a higher project that has a good name behind them, we do a bit of research in the back end and make sure that they tick the right boxes for us, so there's a mutual collaboration to work together.”
Notable projects
Vast has worked on numerous notable and meaningful infrastructure projects, including ACT Government housing projects. They just completed a subdivision for Defence, which is up for a CCF Award at the upcoming Earth Awards.
The job was not straightforward. As it was already in the works, the team had to take it from where it was and get it up to scratch.
“That involved us taking it back to a clean slate, doing all the testing, getting it to where it needed to be, and then working through all the challenges. Obviously your rock, your contaminated soils, and all that other stuff that you deal with nowadays - that really makes it quite a technical project, and then to get the project finished to where it was supposed to be and handed over to Defence - that is something we're super happy with,” Jayden tells us.
“We're looking forward to going in and hopefully bringing home an award. That would be a nice one to really solidify our name against some of the bigger guys around town - hopefully we can get an award up on the office wall so we just don't have photos of diggers in there.”
Big fleet machines and attachments
The team at Vast have currently got a CAT315 on order, but they didn’t always have such a large fleet.
“It started from obviously humble beginnings,” says Jayden, “and over the years, the profits from the jobs allowed us to expand and provide all the gear that we have now to do our jobs.”
“The size and range of machines we have starts from a 1.8t excavator all the way up to our biggest, which is behind us, the 335. We have a D6 dozer and two 35-tonne dump trucks. We've got a full fleet of trucks and dogs, float trailer, Posi-Tracks, rollers - everything we need to do the job really.”
With such a large fleet and a huge variety of work, the team at Vast needed to kit out their machines. Now, all of Vast’s excavators now run Attach2 Tilt Hitches as standard. Each machine is kitted out with a full suite of buckets – typically an Attach2 Mud Bucket, GP, Ripper, and two or three trenching options ranging from 300mm through to 600mm and 900mm depending on the machine size. They also run Attach2 Compaction Wheels across the fleet.
Jon and Jayden explain their journey with Attach2.
“We chose to try Attach2 a couple of years ago after some failures with other manufacturers. We had a conversation with our local dealer, WesTrac, about what had been successful for other operators. They recommended Attach2, and we got really good feedback from others in the industry already running them,” Jon tells us. “The trial went really well so now we put them on all our machines.”
To date, the team haven't had a single breakdown and have found Attach2’s service and support to be fast and reliable. “We're really happy with that. We find the hitches are really user-friendly - they do everything we need them to do,” Jon says.
“We quite often get sudden requests for jobs where we mightn't be completely set up for it. Attach2 know all our machines and all our measurements. It just helps us to do what we do best when we can pick up the phone, make a phone call and have confidence that the attachment is going to turn up in a few days.”
Jon is particularly impressed with the engineering of the products and their ease of use.
“They're really good with the way they've engineered the tilt hitch and how the tilt sensor and cables come into that unit. The buckets themselves dig really well. The wear points, they're really good - they've thought about. The teeth last well and are easy to change.”
“One of the big differences since we've gone to the A2 attachments, compared to some of the other products we used previously is the engineering of the tilt hitch itself.
“The way that the front pickup's designed, it's very visible. It picks the buckets up really well. Some of the other hitches we used in the past can be a bit clunky, but with the A2, you don't even have to have it perfectly square - it'll just pick up a bucket.”
Shared values
Both Vast and Attach2 share many values – especially the commitment to going that extra mile for maximum efficiency. Jon and Jayden appreciate the open lines of communication and the feedback they have with the team, enabling their products to be engineered exactly as they needed.
“In the early days,” Jayden tells us, “we had some conversations about the way the spacers worked on the buckets. They were originally bolting them on - we wanted them welded on. Attach2 came out to the site, had a look at our needs and why we wanted that, and were more than happy to take it on board. They now weld all our spacers on in the factory before they send them down. They were really open to our feedback on that, and it's always great to have a company like that listening to us and doing what we require.”
Jayden also tells us what he appreciated about the service they received.
“I think, overall, the Attach2 platform is pretty solid. Fortunately, we haven't needed to try the warranty yet. We’ve had a really good run with their attachments. Their service and support is great. The sales rep swings through Canberra regularly and always touches base to make sure everything's going okay.”
So how does that all translate to the day-to-day workings of a business? What does it look like, on a practical level, to work with businesses aligned to the same vision?
“Well,” says Jayden, “by going to Attach2, we've minimised the breakdowns. They've kept strong, they read true, they work - they do what they need to do, and you can't ask for more than that.”
The team have also found some unique uses by having a tilt hitch over a quick coupler – especially with the 180-degree tilt. Jayden elaborates. “You're able to get into those tight areas in a corner of a basement where you can't really get into the corner of the walls otherwise. The Attach2 Tilt hitch tilts quite a way up - you can get a really solid angle on there to make sure you're getting the bucket right into where you need to get it to make sure you're doing the job the best you can.”
The whole package
As we are talking to the boys, the site behind us at Burgman Collage is buzzing with activity. Vast are working on a whole civil package – and with that comes many challenges.
With a lot of uncontrolled fill and groundwater, the team are doing the hydraulics as well as all the earthmoving. This can be tedious – there is a lot of pulling dirt out, putting it back in, geo-testing, Piering, and a lot of water.
The project has about 1800 cubic metres of dirt to be exported, and it needs to be completed by the end of the year for the school to open in 2027.
Because of the site's location, the team has to cross a creek to even get in. This means a lot of environmental controls.
“It's quite a technical job,” Jon explains, “because there are a lot of aspects and different machinery. A lot of the soil is just unsuitable. The large amount of export means we've got trucks and dogs and relocating spoil on site, we have Moxies. As far as our attachments go, we've got our standard excavators with tilt hitches and buckets. The project itself isn't as straightforward as some, but we like the challenge, so this is a good project for us.”
On that note, we want to hear about some of the challenges facing the industry from their perspective.
In a current economic crisis with inflation and the cost of living continuing to rise, and amid an emerging trend of price-driven awarded contracts, running a civil company can’t be easy.
“Our biggest expense is diesel.” Jon explains. “Everything that we do depends on the cost of oil, so all of these things do make it challenging. Everything's driven by cost at the moment, and we, as a company, need to make sure we are providing a cost-efficient option for our clients, which is a bit of a challenge right now. Our customers need to make sure they're working with businesses that will perform. They're going to work with clients that are doing the right things and ordering the right materials – that are not going to be hitting them for variations, taking too long to do the job. That sort of thing is all part of the challenge that a business has to face.”
It is of no surprise that Jon and Jayden’s focus on teaming up with the right people and investing in their equipment is part of the solution to these challenges. Client and staff retention, as well as minimising costs through product efficiencies, are part of the growth mindset that sets them apart. Why not do such a good job with existing clients that they will come back? Why not use the best equipment to reduce downtime and breakdowns, and complete jobs faster?
“Being able to keep that client retention is one of the biggest things nowadays, especially when you're buying some premium gear,” Jayden says.
“We buy work utes for all of our vehicles. We really try to provide the best workplace we can. So, price really matters, more so than ever. We really need to make sure we're working with the right people, we're being efficient with what we do, and making sure at the end of the day, we can provide a quality job without sacrificing cost or time.”
Jayden chimes in: “Caterpillar looks after us in that aspect as well to make sure we're getting the best prices so that we can continue to afford all the nice stuff that we have.”
Rather than focusing on cutting margins to respond to industry financial challenges, Vast's main way to bring industry costs down is through efficiencies.
“We've taken a different approach to a lot of the other companies,” Jon explains. “We go for efficiencies through technology - buying new gear, making sure we've got the right attachments, making sure we've got the most up-to-date trucks and the most fuel-efficient machines. We try to bring our costs down by being efficient, doing the job right, and doing it once.”
Future focused
The future is looking, well, Vast for Jon and Jayden.
They are striving to be seen as a big player in Civil in the Canberra region – eventually pushing toward becoming a PCBU, working directly for Governments and Tier 1’s major civil projects.
“We just want to grow our reputation, our fleet, and our team. As our fleet grows, we will be supporting A2 because they've supported us,” Jon says. “We love to work with the same people who are on the same page. Whether it's our fleet of vehicles, our brand diggers, our attachments and our hitches.”
“With the help of Attach2,” Jayden expresses, “I see our brand progressing with the right attachments. We've found that they do tend to do those little 1%ers that we really appreciate. That's what we strive for - to always go that extra 1%.”
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