The Gillies Metaltech Limited business has been foundering and fabricating products to the North Otago region for over a century.
First established in 1924 under the name “North Otago Ironworks” and renamed Gillies under the new owner in 1944, Gillies has been making quality products from the same location in Tyne Street, Ōamaru, employing countless people across multiple generations.
Gillies Metaltech quickly developed expertise in the design and manufacture of municipal waterworks products. The Gillies brand name is renown across New Zealand and through parts of Australia and the South Pacific, supplying quality watermain fittings, valves, and pumps, which support urban and rural infrastructure and support communities to prosper and provide reliable water supply. Gillies developed our own brands, design methods and registered test technologies, to ensure reliable water products – everytime.
Gillies Metaltech watermain products are designed and tested to meet New Zealand and Australian quality standards
Gillies Metaltech operates a large volume ferrous (ductile and cast iron) casting furnace as well as smaller non-ferrous speciality furnaces. Production processes include patten making and sand moulding, to ensure continuous quality across low and high production volume runs.
Gillies Metaltech offer a design consultancy service for custom castings and fabricated or machined items, made locally at the GMT Foundry workshops in Ōamaru.
Hynds Group of Companies & Local Product Supply
The Hynds Group of Companies is a New Zealand family-owned business, operating across New Zealand and parts of Australia in over 50 sites. Hynds Group incorporates sales branch outlets which promote and distribute a large range of products for the management of water and water-based-waste. Through Gillies Metaltech, Hynds Group manufactures and provides ferrous iron fittings, valves, and specialist pumps, alongside the extensive range of precast concrete, polyethylene, and polypropylene pipe products, which are also made in-house and distributed nationally.
Hynds purchased the Gillies businesses in 2004, establishing the Gillies Metaltech Ltd business unit. Under Hynds, Gillies developed a new universal Australian/New Zealand range of municipal watermain fittings and specialist valves, approved and used throughout both countries. The Gillies brand name is represented across the Hynds Group of Companies and is specified in a number of major projects and territorial authorities.
Hynds Foundation is a registered charitable trust established by the Hynds Family to organise and distribute help across communities in need. The Hynds Foundation operates under five giving pillars, one of which is ‘Arts and Culture’. This pillar is actively pursued by Hynds Foundation at the Gillies Metaltech operation in Ōamaru. Hynds Foundation has established the Crucible Art Studios and Crucible Gallery within the foundry operation, on the main street of Tyne Street in historic Ōamaru. A number of artist residency support programmes are provided for local and external artists, working in the Crucible Art Studios section of the historic foundry complex, resident artists are able to create new expressions of art, which can be inspired from the working foundry as well as Ōamaru’s historic whitestone buildings contained within the precinct, and natural beauty located across the Waitaki District.
Gillies Metaltech’s standard product range are available across the nationwide network of Hynds Pipe Systems branches, located in each region in New Zealand. Wholesale supply of Gillies Metaltech standard products are available from both Hygrade Water New Zealand and Hygrade Water Australia.
We’re a full-service foundry specialising in both ferrous (cast iron & ductile iron) and non-ferrous metals (brass, bronze & aluminium)
