Taggart is a family-owned civil construction, demolition and earthmoving company based in Christchurch, serving the wider Canterbury region since 1953. Founded by Cantabrian Ron Taggart, the business has grown from a single flat deck truck into a genuine industry leader, having completed more than 5,000 projects over nearly seven decades.
Today, Taggart employs more than 130 people, owns over 100 machines, and runs nearly 40 trucks across three Christchurch depots. The company's core services span civil construction, demolition, 3 waters, and landscape supplies, with expertise covering earthworks, siteworks, drainage, heavy haulage and shingle processing. Taggart has played a role in some of Canterbury's most significant projects, including the Christchurch Town Hall, University of Canterbury, Christchurch Public Hospital, and Wilding Park, alongside numerous residential and commercial subdivisions, sports complexes, street reconstruction projects and private developments.
The company operates under the guiding concept of "Groundwork for the Future," framing its projects as the foundation for the region's ongoing growth, and is driven by core values built around people, pride in work, specialisation, teamwork, and accepting the challenge. Taggart remains a local, family business, with founder Ron Taggart's sons Paul and Mark having grown into leadership roles within the company over the decades.
Taggart has spent nearly seventy years shaping the ground beneath Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region, growing from a one-man operation into a genuine industry leader in civil construction, demolition, 3 waters and landscape supplies. The company remains family-owned today, a point of pride reflected throughout its history.
Taggart Earthmoving was founded in 1953 by Cantabrian Ron Taggart, who started out with a flat deck truck he had to manually shovel material on and off. As momentum grew, Ron upgraded to a tip truck and a tractor fitted with a loader he built himself. By the 1960s, the business had entered the commercial construction market, demolishing older houses to make way for new builds and subdivisions, and became one of the first Christchurch-based companies to own a hydraulic excavator.
The 1970s brought a name change to Taggart Earthmoving Limited and a move from the family home on Preston's Road to a bigger yard at 30 Belfast Road, complete with a state-of-the-art workshop. During this decade, Taggart worked on Canterbury University's new campus, Christchurch Hospital, and the development of QEII Stadium for the 1974 Commonwealth Games, while becoming the first South Island company to own a Caterpillar 225 Excavator and a 613 Motor Scraper.
Through the 1980s and 90s, Ron's sons Paul and Mark grew into the business — Paul completing a Diesel Mechanics apprenticeship before becoming a Project Manager, and Mark moving from operating a scraper on the Amuri Irrigation Scheme in Culverden (which saw Taggart construct over 50km of canals and lateral races) to Site Foreman on the Riccarton Mall development. The company opened a Rangiora branch in the 1980s, expanding into gravel supplies and processing, and won its first $1 million contract in the 1990s: the redevelopment of the CTP board plant at Ashley.
By its 50th birthday in the 2000s, Taggart's staff had surged past 100. Notable projects from this era include a 10-month tailing dam lift at Oceana McCrea's Gold Mine in East Otago, the first stage of the 360-section Northwood Subdivision, and participation in a contractor alliance to build the Kate Valley Landfill, delivered on time and on budget.
The 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes triggered a dramatic increase in Taggart's scale and capability. The Christchurch rebuild brought unprecedented volumes of subdivision and commercial work, prompting Taggart to acquire a drainage business and a water and services company to build out full in-house civil construction capacity. As the fleet and management team grew, the company also underwent a rebrand to reflect its evolution into a world-class, industry-leading business.
In the years following the COVID-19 lockdowns, property development and demolition activity continued to grow for Taggart. Major recent projects include the Ravenswood subdivision — a large commercial centre alongside the development of 1,900 residential lots — and the Lancaster Park Redevelopment for the Christchurch City Council. More recently, Taggart delivered the latest stage of the Amberley Retirement Village in North Canterbury, managing earthworks, drainage, water reticulation, roading and utility coordination with MainPower, Chorus and the Hurunui District Council, completing the phase ahead of schedule. In Hanmer Springs, Taggart delivered the first phase of the Riverside Springs residential and commercial subdivision, laying the groundwork for more than 120 new sections — moving over 102,000m³ of earth, laying 5,677 metres of sewer, stormwater and water pipes, and forming more than 9,000m² of roads.
Taggart describes its guiding philosophy as "Groundwork for the Future" — viewing every project not as a short-term assignment, but as part of the foundation on which the region's future will be built. That philosophy is backed by core values centred on people, pride in work, specialisation, teamwork, and a willingness to accept the challenge.