Wirtgen and ANA: Always on the front foot

Keeping ahead of industry requirements has led to the exponential growth of ANA Asphalts since 2014. Wirtgen machinery has also played a role, as Director Angus Walker explains.

Whether it’s councils, civil contractors or private customers, ANA Asphalts has gone from the ‘new kid on the block’ to catering for some of the largest and toughest infrastructure projects in New South Wales.

Operating throughout Newcastle, the company is the by-product of company Director Angus Walker’s experience in the asphalt sector, as well as his enthusiasm to forge his own path.

Initially starting his journey alongside his father laying asphalt, Walker co-founded ANA Asphalts to provide a local-first service that’s focused on providing the highest quality. As he explains, the company represents a mix between the service and thoughtfulness of a local business with the quality and scope of a larger provider.

“We’ve got a small business mindset with a big vision,” he says. “My business partner at the time and I bought our own bobcat, a small paver and a roller and it all started from there. I just continued to grow the business anyway that I could.”

From these humble beginnings, Walker’s drive and passion, as well as his industry connections, have helped to fuel ANA Asphalts’ success.

Presentation, housekeeping, safety, production and customer satisfaction have long been front and centre for ANA Asphalts. As such, the company places no priority higher than delivering on the customer’s needs.

Start of something special

Now with decades worth of experience and the establishment of three paving crews, ANA Asphalts still remains an Australian and family-owned business, with Walker’s ascendence playing a big part in ANA Asphalts’ completing works for tier one infrastructure companies.

So has the use of the latest machinery and equipment.

“I was doing some contracting work for Colas when I laid my eyes on one of the Wirtgen Group’s Vögele pavers,” says Walker. “The presentation was one of the biggest things that stuck out to me. Shortly after I reached out to Wirtgen. They had a cancelled order, so we received our first within weeks.

“That was our first Vögele paver in 2016. From there our fleet as well as the relationship with Wirtgen has gone from strength to strength.”

“Strength to strength” could be considered an understatement. ANA Asphalts more than tripled in size in just a matter of years, with Wirtgen machinery playing a pivotal role in this expansion.

ANA Asphalts’ growth and ambition has been spearheaded by Director and Co-Founder Angus Walker.

In 2019, ANA Asphalts added its second asphalt crew. The year 2020 also represented growth, with the company adding a third crew, as well as hitting the quarter of a century milestone, amassing 25 machines from Wirtgen, including pavers and rollers.

ANA Asphalts then went on to purchase new profilers at the beginning of 2022, 2023 as well as 2024.

“The first paver that we bought from them, we’ve still got, and we still use. It’s already been in use for eight years and clocked up more than 10,000 hours and that machine still goes to work every day,” Walker says.

“They’ve had the best profilers in the market for a long time. It’s the reliability and the support from those guys that’s really stood out. Even through the buyout from John Deere, when there was a risk of distraction and disruption, Wirtgen stayed on course and continued to support us to the highest standard without a blip.”

Using Wirtgen machinery, ANA Asphalts recently completed works on the M1 Pacific Motorway, in particular the section between Tuggerah to Doyalson.

Initially the company started the works with just one asphalt paver. Expectations from the client required Walker and the team to acquire an additional two machines. Wirtgen was right at the top of the call sheet.

“Wirtgen made that happen for us really quickly, as we were expected to pave anywhere between 1000 to 1500 tonnes every day for a few years. That was a really important project for our growth and the customer was really pleased,” Walker says.

“From a technology standpoint, quality assurance and the way that these machines are built, they make a massive difference to our business. The amount of asphalt that we can get down on the ground and the speed that we can deliver quality from having the right machines for the job at hand – whether its compaction, profiling, paving, they’ve got it all.”

Related stories:

Better together

Wirtgen’s philosophy is to provide the right machine for every application. When considering pavers alone, the company has options across five different machinery classes. All best suited to specific works, from works on footpaths to major highway projects.

Its Universal Class aims to deliver a versatile and powerful mix, a machine that can handle both highway projects and roundabouts. Each of these units in their own way can also be used in tandem with other Wirtgen Group machinery.

With every noteworthy jump, Wirtgen has been there. A fact that Walker and the ANA Asphalts team don’t take for granted.

“We’ve branched out into spray seal, traffic control and virtually all aspects of road paving from start to finish. They’ve been there every step of the way. Whenever we’ve had any issues, they’ve been more than willing to assist,” Walker says. “You can tell they care about their customers.”

Wirtgen has even taken Walker and some of the ANA Asphalts team overseas to Germany so they can learn more about Vögele’s development and innovation from its main factory in Ludwigshafen, on the Rhine.

Wirtgen Group Machinery make up almost the entirety of ANA Asphalts’ machinery fleet, with the two companies sharing a strong commitment to quality and safety.

“We did some paver training and technology training to help us to use the machine to its full potential. That experience really opened our eyes to the broader range of products that they supply,” Walker says.

“They really showcased what’s next in terms of sustainability and the future of asphalt paving and road construction. It was great in terms of innovation and networking. We met some really great people and formed some good relationships.”

Following the trip, ANA Asphalts is also beginning to implement recycling into its business.

“That experience really showed how far the envelope is being pushed overseas and how far we’ve got to go in terms of technology and sustainability,” Walker says.

“A big take away for me was the importance of doing more work, with less resources and input. It was a real inspiration to be smarter in the way that we do things. One thing that we’ve all learnt, especially when it comes to contracts is that it’s better to always be on the front foot.”

Walker says this is a common theme across the entire company, to never settle, to always push to be better.

“We don’t just stop when we’re comfortable, we’re always trying to push the limit and make things better,” he says. “Just because we’ve had a great day today, doesn’t mean that we can’t have an even better day tomorrow – that’s the attitude that we’ve always got.

“The driving force behind that is the people that we have in the business. We all lead by example; I’d like to think that my qualities and attributes have been pushed down to the crews.

“No has never been in our vocabulary. Even adopting spray sealing has been a challenge, but we know in the long run that it will enable us to better service the needs of our customers.”

Future focus

Walker and the senior management team always have one eye locked on the future, evaluating future works contracts and needs of the business. Despite ambition toward further growth and larger works, Walker remains grounded in the sector and community that first gave him his shot. That’s why the focus on local employees and materials will never peter out.

“Around 95 per cent of our total workforce is from the Newcastle area. Our mechanics, materials and parts suppliers – they’re all based local and that’s the way that we try to keep it,” he says.

ANA Asphalts’ portfolio of projects continues to grow, as does the size of its machinery fleet.

When it comes to what’s in store for the future of ANA Asphalts, Walker says among the company’s objectives is to eventually veer towards asphalt manufacturing. A venture that he admits may be some time away, but yet another challenge that the team is keen to embrace.

“I’d like to think that we’ve mastered many different disciplines and areas when it comes to asphalt, but there’s still more to do,” he says. “We really want and need to adapt to what the market needs.

“It’s about that attention to detail, that’s what the market is paying us for. We do what we say and say what we do. That’s another reason why we are branching out, we’ll do everything from start to finish. Whatever the task is ahead of us, we’ll find a way to get it done.”