Over 50 years of partnership and continuous innovation, and still ahead of the game.

Established in 1971 in Tamahere by John and Cecile, Alexander Group originally specialises in grain transportation, an industry just starting to flourish. By 1976, producers were starting to export – an opportune time for the Alexanders to gain a Gisborne contract to ship 5,000-ton shipments of grain at a time, 24/7 to Mt Maunganui Port. A time of intense growth, it is also a time of innovation: John Alexander invents a hyper-efficient specialist grain unit, later dubbed the ‘Grain Train’. Different to other trucks, it means contents can be bottom-dumped, an invention that helps the young company secure a three-year contract with Northern Roller Milling (now known today as NRM).

By the late ‘70s, a new Kiwi crop is also beginning to show potential. A call from Jim Delegat of Delegat Wines sees the dawn of Alexander Group’s expansion into the New Zealand wine industry. Carting bulk grapes from Gisborne to Auckland, again an innovative response is called for. Bulk grape is straight off the harvest, tipped straight into the truck. The journey from Gisborne to Auckland means the grapes can be 70% liquid by the time they arrive in Auckland. To solve the issue, the company partners with engineering company Transport and General Ltd developing a special tail board that seals the body of the truck and the tail door, an invention that becomes the future of this type of aluminium truck bodies.

To this day, this innovation is still used in the industry.

By the mid-80s the grain industry is slowing. Following an extended stint travelling overseas with their young children, the Alexanders return to New Zealand and promptly pick up where they left off, signing a contract with Corban Wines in 1984. This relationship - and those formed with other New World wine pioneers Montana, Delegat, Babich and Nobilo - continues throughout the decade, which sees the company not only responsible for grape cartage, but also finished wine, firmly establishing Alexander Group as a fixture in the viticulture industry.

Significantly, the 80’s also sees Alexander Group start to diversify, carting ethanol from Edgecumbe to Auckland and other destinations for the NZ Distillery Company via the use of specialised tankers, a forerunner of things to come. Developing an ethanol tanker in 1982 is a major turning point for the company, establishing their presence in the bulk tanker industry which continues to this day.

A new decade sees Alexander Group continuing to drive New Zealand’s wine industry forward, with an average of 80-90 million litres of wine and grape juice transported per year. It’s a decade that also sees the fruition of their earlier venture into ethanol cartage. In 1999, conversations with Shell culminate in Alexander Group securing a deal much larger than anything they’ve done before - delivering all of Shell’s retail, commercial, farm, aviation, oil and LPG product in the South Island, setting the wheels in motion for what follows. The 90’s also sees the company acknowledged for its impressive entrepreneurship in 1997, winning the BNZ Small Fleet Operator of the Year Award.

The 2000’s is a time of extraordinary agility and responsiveness for Alexander Group. Proving their merit, the company becomes a transport contractor for the South Island, taking over bulk retail delivery and consolidating fuel transport into one 24/7 multi-function fleet with centralised scheduling. Awarded BOC’s South Island bulk distribution in 2002, by 2005 the company also acquires the North Island contract effectively securing all bulk cryogenic gas deliveries throughout New Zealand. Later in the decade, the company establishes the origins of their intermodal arm - a coastal shipping and ISO handling depot in Malborough for wine inter-island transfers. In 2008, Alexander Group is awarded the NZTA Road Transport Innovation and Safety Award.