The firm - started as a one man engineering business in the mid-sixties by the late Eddie Quinn, trading as Quinn Bale Boys - has now grown its range of products and services, which are sold throughout New Zealand, the Pacific and Australia. Present owner Alex Quinn changed the firm's name in 1997 to Quinn Engineering to reflect these changes.
Lifts now account for 66% of Quinn's business - a product range that started in 1990 when "a person from Bowen Town" asked Alex if he could install a lift, and it grew from that. Prior to that, in the late 1960s, Quinn made bale collector sledges that were towed behind a baler, collecting up to ten bales. The bales were manually stacked four high and transferred by bale clamp to shed or trailer.
"Two men could handle 500 bales an hour," said Alex.
The company now makes a range of products, including forklifts, bin rotators, yard scrapers, bale clamps, cowsheds (mainly alterations) and sliding roof covers for fertiliser/feed bins.
The bigger and better site is on one hectare of land with 1400 square metres of purpose-built building and facilities. The cutting of the ribbon was done by Alex Quinn, assisted by son Hamish and daughter Morgan.
