Hayward Johnston a builder and Brian Johnston a 20 year old fitter turner decided to put Brian’s recently acquired fitter turner skills into business. So in 1974 the two co-founders started doing engineering work in the family garage with a metal lathe, arc welder and hand tools. Many hundreds of Garden Hose Reels were manufactured with steel frames and sheet metal spun sides and coper glands and sold to wholesalers such as Briscoes and others. The frames were made from 3/8”black round steel bent by hand in a jig. Two more lathes were soon added doing repetition machining. The business was trading as Johnston Enterprises.
In 1975 after gaining a significant contract for the manufacturing of all the componentry except the canvas for retractable awnings for a large canvas company, the business was forced to shift into premises in Grey Lynn.
Keen for growth they also purchased a large cylindrical grinder and began specializing in precision grinding large rollers for the printing and packaging industry. This machine was situated in another building in Onehunga.
In 1976 more space was needed, so the business shifted to a larger leased premises in Onehunga and which put everything on one site and they employed their first full time non family employee.
Looking to manufacture a product range that the business owned, they designed and manufactured a product called “Fenceliner”. A product that was unique at the time and was designed to make life easier and faster for NZ farmers.
1978 saw the securing of another contract welding up front end loaders for Hood and Belcher. Our introduction to compact tractors.
1979 saw the purchase the companies first premises. A small wooden floored joinery factory. Wooden floors and large precision machinery do not go together so the floor was removed and replaced it with concrete.
Our first ever Mystery creek Fieldays attendance in June 1979! A product that was unique at the time and was designed to make life easier and faster for NZ farmers.
1980 While mainly doing jobbing engineering and contract manufacturing work, design and manufacturing was started of our own mid mount mowers for small Japanese compact tractors. We manufactured for the importers of Kubota, Ford, Iseki, Yanmar, Mitsubishi.
1982 Saw the development of rear mount mowers for compact tractors, and The first tow and mow topping mower available in NZ to be towed behind three and four wheeled farm bikes.
1983 saw around 10 full time employees. Realizing the advantage of having the mower in front of the operator lead to designing a mower on the front of a Yanmar tractor. Taking it one step further; reversed the seat and steering position on a model B8200 Kubota. This was a forerunner of todays out-front mowers which can now be found operating all around the world!
1985 saw the design and manufacture of the Stevens 660 Contractor self propelled walk behind mower. This product was continued until 2014 and we made over 1000 of them; versions Mk 1, MkII, MkIII. We also manufactured the Stevens 610 self-propelled walk behind mower.
1986 Pre the days of Photoshop our marketing team did a trip to the Auckland Zoo to meet the famous Kashin the Elephant. Plan went, Kashin stood with her foot above the mower to indicate how strong it was. Reality went, Kashin put her foot onto the mower and pushed it several inches into the ground. Retrieved unscathed, the mower lived up to the legend and some 35 years later you can find these original mowers being used around NZ!
In 1987 needing more space we moved to 16 Andrew Baxter Drive Mangere.
In 1988 we imported our first Walker mower from a friend in Australia who was the distributor. The tractor was a great product, but the mower didn’t work well in our conditions. After almost abandoning the idea, we persevered with modifications until it worked.
Around this time the business name “Stevens” was established chosen by Hayward as this was Brian’s middle name.
In 1989 we imported 13 Walker Mowers from the USA in a 20 ft container and modified the mower decks to suit our conditions. This set a precedent for our todays slogan, Perfected for acclimatized performance in New Zealand”.
In 1990 we began importing Hustler mowers. The range was then a completely a commercial product line up.
In 1991 we had our first visit from Bob Walker President of Walker Mowers USA after we had purchase 117 mowers from the Walker Manufacturing company.
In 1992 as there was a 27% duty on mower decks coming into New Zealand seeking a lower priced mower deck we designed and made our Walker mower decks. These were painted blue and called the LE deck. Limited Edition.
In 1995 Again needing more space, we added on to the back of the building at 16 Andrew Baxter Drive. At this stage the Grinding & engineering side of the business was separated off and the focus of Stevens became solely machinery. The business focused efforts on developing a national distribution network for our machinery. This network developed into the widest and most envied OPE distribution network in New Zealand!
Manufacturing portable petrol-powered generators started, importing the alternators from Italy. This continued until 1999 when there was a widespread belief that the turn of the century would cripple computers and shut down power networks etc. so China started making generators in large volumes. This eventually halved the price they were selling for, so we exited this market in 1999.
During the late 90’s we designed and manufactured several different mower decks to fit the Walker mower for specialist needs such as roadside mowing and cemeteries. To this day nearly every Walker mower sold in New Zealand has a New Zealand designed cutting deck – and these designs can also be found working in Europe and Australia. This period saw several other innovations added to the walker tractor that were initiated by us including the removeable catcher screen with different hole sizes and the catcher deflector allowing for rear discharge through the catcher. We also designed, manufactured, and sold many edgers for the Walker mower.
In 1997 With a passion for recycling – the business started importing Carravaggi chippers from Italy. We saw an opening for a greener and more sustainable way to dispose of garden waste instead of burning it. These machines became a mainstay product until 2007 when the agency became unviable owing to purchases made in Euro vs Italian Lira. This was our entry into recycling machinery!
1999 Importing started of Ferrari mowers from Italy. This stopped in approximately 2007 when pricing no longer became viable in New Zealand.
2000 we developed the mechanical deck lift for the Walker mower which in 2021 has been finally replaced by the electric version. 2000 also saw and the single lever height adjuster launch. This product is now fitted to nearly every Walker mower sold in New Zealand and exported and fitted to roughly 30% of all Walker mowers sold worldwide!
In 2000 we built and moved into a new premises at 12 Andrew Baxter Drive Mangere. This was a significant step and got us into our first ever purpose build building.
2003 saw the installation of our first German made automated parts storage and picking machine, which allowed us to keep our parts cleaner, have better stock controls.
In 2005 we developed our own rider mower and produced and sold five. Hustler USA saw the concept and purchased the right to manufacturer their version of it so our rider was the forerunner of the Hustler FLIP-UP mower.
In 2008 the Multi Deck was designed and launched to revolutionize Lawnmowing. This was possibly the first ever mower deck to do collection, mulching, and side discharge… and gave the brand a significant step forward as it now allowed the end user to do all three modes taking only seconds to change between modes.
2010 The Hustler Flip up mower was launched which was a big moment for the Hustler brand in New Zealand as it was a first where complete mower concept designed in New Zealand was now being manufactured overseas
In 2011 we added on to the premises as we had run short of space again.
2012 saw the launch and distribution of the Big Dog Mower brand in New Zealand following the announcement from Excell Industries that they were running a second brand from their manufacturing facility. The Big Dog brand ran parallel to the Hustler brand until 2019 where the dealer network were successfully switched to the Hustler brand following a decision from Excell to discontinue the export of this brand.
2014 saw a significant development for the business as several of our existing agencies had developed products that were too large and low volume for our traditional business model of wholesale only. The difficult decision was made to start trading as 3 separate entities being Stevens Outdoor Power Equipment, Commercial Outdoor Machinery, and Stevens Manufacturing.
This meant we would have 100% committed focus on growth of our wholesale dealer network and brands supplied through this via Stevens Outdoor Power Equipment, whilst allowing us to grow new larger business direct sell to end user sales of machinery that would not sell through our dealer network, via the Commercial Outdoor Machinery business. The split was made and we employed our first mechanic to start servicing larger machinery allowing us to sell larger machinery with backup!
2015 Morbark Tree Care & Boxer Mini Skid Steers became our latest addition of brands – allowing us to sell the leading & original wood chipping brand in the world!
Following rapid growth of the new Commercial Outdoor Machinery business – we had to purchase another building! Right next door to our main headquarters a building was purchased, completely revamped, and opened in April 2016.
2016 saw our very first Tiger Chipper Shredder sold – a unique design which had 19 years of previous experience put into developing the perfect machine for chipping and shredding all green waste down one hopper in one pass!
2017 saw the introduction of the wheeled and tracked Forst wood chippers – this amazing brand was only very young however after extensive testing and the factory in England agreeing to make modifications to suit the New Zealand conditions we put a lot of focus on it and the brand consistently grows each year.
2018 The Morbark Industrial agency was awarded to our company after being a gold tier Dealer several years running with the Morbark Tree Care agency. This exciting decision was quickly rewarded by exciting results for the Morbark company where Morbark has become the market leader in the New Zealand market in the Land clearing, Forestry clean up, and Bio-Mass industry.
2019 saw Morbark USA purchased the Rayco company. Following our success with the Morbark company this agency was shifted to us as a sole agency.
In 2020 requiring a slow speed shredder agency we decided to go for the best in the world and managed to secure the Doppstadt agency for New Zealand. Doppstadt is an established worldwide recognized leader in recycling – helping us to complete our recycling line up.
2021 following years of significant growth and planning, January 2021 saw the shift into our new purpose built facility at 293 Landing Drive, Mangere, Auckland. This allowed us to shift from three buildings into one and have our team working closer together again. In the process of designing the building it quickly became apparent that we needed to re-group our three different divisions so we didn’t have to duplicate our management teams and parts departments in the new building, and instead focus on efficiency and growth. The decision was made to re brand all three divisions as Stevens Group. This significant shift has given us spare space, positioned us for significant growth in the next decade in our 3 acre facility.
2021 also saw the launch of the long awaited Electric deck lift for the Walker mower.
2022 Stevens Group has purchased Lincom NZ – the New Zealand subsidiary of Lincom Group. The transaction includes all machines and parts stock, and the sales rights to the brands represented by Lincom NZ, including Powerscreen, Terex Washing Systems, Pronar, Anaconda, Rapid International, and Kiverco. The purchase of the Lincom NZ business fits perfectly with our aspirations to grow our already successful machinery and equipment business into the quarry, mining, and recycling sectors. The two businesses share many synergies. Key to us is that we only represent world-class brands and have the right people with the right knowledge to best serve the customers. The purchase of Lincom NZ achieves both of these.
