When it comes to stormwater and hazardous substance storage, there’s not much “off the shelf” about APD. From its Wiri, Auckland factory, the 40-plus-year-old company designs and manufactures made-to-order stormwater systems and chemical storage tanks for projects across Aotearoa – often solving problems that standard products simply can’t.
From one-man band to 60-strong team
APD began life in the 1980s as a one-man plastic fabrication business, “doing just about anything made from plastic,” Chief Executive Officer, Neil Prime explains. Over time, the company moved into composite PVC/fibreglass tanks for road tankers carrying hazardous substances, then into roto-moulded tanks and fittings for water and wastewater treatment plants.
In the mid-2000s, when new hazardous substances regulations and codes of practice were introduced, APD became the first New Zealand company to have an approved code of practice for supplying hazardous substance tanks fabricated from polyethylene sheet – something they still specialise in today.
At the same time, APD expanded its offering to include below-ground stormwater tanks as the business continued to grow.
In 2018, APD outgrew its 800 m² premises and relocated to a 3,000 m² factory. Fast-forward to today, and the company has expanded again, completing yet another significant upgrade to support rising demand. We have grown to a team of around 60 people and just increased the factory to 4,000 m² with an additional 750 m² office block. We now have more space, better facilities and even more capacity for future growth.
Prime says this shift has enabled significant investment in plant and capacity including three rotational moulding machines, new bending equipment and CNC capability.
Today, APD’s business is built around three core streams:
1. Stormwater solutions – including above ground StormSlim tanks, in-slab StormSlab systems, and StormLite below-ground tanks, often integrated with pits and custom structures.
2. Water and wastewater pumping stations – including pressure sewer systems.
3. Bulk chemical storage tanks – for hazardous substances used in water and wastewater treatment, beverage and dairy processing, and industrial applications such as galvanising and powder-coating.
For Prime, what makes the company unique is a mix of technical capability, manufacturing flexibility and a deeply customer-centric mindset.
“As a plastic fabricator and a rotational moulding company, we control the process from raw material to finished product in-house. We’re not constrained to a single mould or size. We can make a solution work – and we support our customers before, during and after installation.”
What’s more, APD’s builds products that stand the test of time. Chemical tanks have a 25-year design life, while rotationally moulded stormwater products carry a 10-year warranty and an expected service life of 50 years or more.
Custom tanks as standard
APD’s underground stormwater tanks are an example of its flexible manufacturing approach. Instead of offering a fixed set of tank sizes, APD builds tanks to whatever volume a designer or drainlayer specifies.
“We can make whatever size the customer needs,” Prime says. “And there’s no custom surcharge; it’s just how we work.”
The process starts with rotational moulding. Polymer powder is poured into steel or aluminium moulds, which heat and rotate until the material melts and coats the interior. Once cooled, the parts are removed, trimmed and held in inventory. APD then cuts and welds sections together to achieve the exact tank length and capacity required.
Because the moulded parts are modular and the welding is done in-house, every underground tank is made to order – yet surprisingly, typical production time is just two to five days from order, even with no finished stock held.
“In a market where some products take months, that’s exceptionally fast,” says Prime.
Fabrication for hazardous substances
APD also fabricates chemical storage tanks for hazardous substances, using polyethylene, polypropylene or PVC sheet sourced from specialist suppliers. Sheets are cut, shaped and plastic-welded to form tanks from a few hundred litres to tens of thousands.
“It’s a bit like being a boilermaker – but with plastic,” Prime explains. “Our welding process creates a homogeneous joint, so once it’s cooled you can’t see where the material was joined.”
APD is one of only a few New Zealand companies approved to both design and fabricate polymer chemical tanks under the WorkSafe Hazardous Substances Regulations. Each tank is hydrostatically tested, welders are independently assessed annually, and designs are verified to the relevant standards.
Innovation over imitation
True to its “innovation, not imitation” philosophy, APD has brought several clever features to market in recent years.
An example is StormSlab, the company’s in-slab stormwater tank system, which won a Master Plumbers Product of the Year award. Where some competing systems use multiple small modules connected beneath the slab – each connection a potential leak point – APD moulds a large single tank and keeps all connections outside the building footprint.
“Nobody wants a leak under their slab,” Prime notes. “By having a single tank and accessible connections, you dramatically reduce risk and make any future maintenance possible.”
Another example of company innovation is the anti-buoyancy ribs moulded into APD’s pump stations and pits. Traditionally, installers pour concrete around buried tanks to prevent them floating when the water table rises. APD’s design uses shaped ribs so the backfill itself locks the tank down.
“You don’t need to pour concrete at all,” says Prime. “It’s faster, simpler, and you avoid leaving a big block of concrete in the ground.”
APD has also squared off many of its pits and tanks, because, as Prime points out, “You don’t dig a round hole with a digger. A square tank in a square hole reduces excavation size and backfill volume, saving time and cost on site.”
Quality systems and sustainability
Always striving for excellence, the company is currently working towards ISO 9001 certification. “We’re already doing a lot of it; ISO 9001 is about documenting and tightening what’s there to further support the quality of our products,” Prime explains.
On the environmental front, APD already has several practical initiatives. Polymer offcuts and scrap are segregated and sent back to suppliers for grinding and reprocessing into new sheet or powder, used in non-critical applications. Roof rainwater is captured and used for toilet flushing, hand-washing and hydro-testing tanks. Cardboard, cafeteria waste like milk bottles, and other recyclables are separated and collected to minimise landfill.
“We already have very little waste,” Prime says. “And once ISO 9001 is embedded we’ll look more formally at environmental standards as well.”
Support for installers and specifiers
For drainlayers, engineers and councils, APD’s technical support is invaluable. The company provides detailed manuals, drawings and installation instructions, plus PS1 documentation where installation follows APD’s specified details. In addition, a dedicated technical support team works with specifiers at design stage to solve layout challenges and size tanks correctly.
“We’ll often go to site before anything starts,” Prime says. “And if someone hits a problem once they start digging – wrong invert level or unexpected ground conditions – our technical people will help to work through a solution.”
Because APD is both a fabricator and a moulding house, it can modify designs with additional supports, deeper burial ratings or bespoke connections to suit unusual conditions.
“There’s not too many situations we can’t resolve,” Prime says. “That’s a big part of what sets us apart from offshore or catalogue-only suppliers.”
A culture of care
Ask Prime what he’s most proud of and he’ll point to APD’s culture. “We’ve built a team that supports each other,” he says. “Visitors often comment that there’s a really good vibe in the factory – and that’s something we work hard on.”
APD’s monthly company updates are followed by a shared lunch, with shout-outs recognising staff who go the extra mile. The company offers practical support too: factory staff can help themselves to breakfast supplies, fruit snacks and get six free doctor’s visits each year.
“We genuinely care about our people,” Prime says. “If the team is well supported, everything else flows from there.”
What lies ahead?
With strong demand in stormwater, water and wastewater, APD sees plenty of room for growth.
“We don’t have an end point in mind,” says Prime. “We’ll keep developing new products, growing the existing range and moving with the technology. For us, it’s about the company that offers the products that customers know can solve the hard problems.”
In a sector facing increasing regulatory complexity, climate pressures and infrastructure challenges, APD’s combination of custom manufacturing, technical depth and genuine customer care leaves the company exceptionally well-placed for the future.
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