A prestigious win for Matthew Pezzuto of Horizon Construction Services has confirmed what he has always thought—that attention to detail and good-quality work makes a difference and gets noticed. Based in South Australia, Pezzuto won the 2023 Toyota Young National Builder of the Year, a prestigious national award, which raised his profile as well as that of his company.
“It was quite an honour to tell you the truth,” he says. “We’ve had some high-profile jobs of late, which have been good and went really well. It’s really good to be recognised and especially nationally.”
Now just 11 years old, Horizon Construction Services specialises in commercial building work, undertaking projects that Pezzuto says run from the “zero to $30 million mark”. Pezzuto established Horizon after spending about 15 years working for others in the building industry, starting with a family business when he was still at school.
“My uncle owned a small building company, and my mum thought it would be a good idea if I did some work experience with my uncle during the year 10 holidays,” he explains. “I decided to work with him, and I really enjoyed it. And I continued on for a number of school holidays until I had to decide what career path I wanted to take.
“I looked at carpentry and construction management and even architecture and a few other professions in the building industry. However, in the end, I decided to do a uni degree in construction management and economics. I continued working with my uncle until the end of year 12 when he said it would be a good idea to go work with someone else and broaden my experience.”
Pezzuto went on to work with a large construction company in South Australia for about 12 years, while he attended university and then afterwards, before he started Horizon Constructions. Horizon takes on projects that Pezzuto calls “corporate institutional” work. “We’re very specific in the type of clientele we choose. We do a lot of government projects, and a lot of education and health projects as well. We employ about 20 people.”
Working on government projects does involve a certain amount of process, red tape and paperwork, he admits, but ultimately is quite rewarding.
“You generally have to staff those projects a bit more than you would in a private sector job. There are also a lot of overheads to government projects because it means you have to run jobs a certain way. We have two full-time estimators and additional staff to help the
estimating department, which is a huge cost each year. We get a lot of negotiated work; we do tender work, and we win projects under a number of different procurement methods as well.
“The first thing to do for any builder looking for this work is to get on the tender list, which is not easy,” Pezzuto says. “We won’t do open tender work; we try and do invited work. At least you know they want you to do the project and you’re not wasting your time.”
He says that winning those projects is a multi-pronged strategy in itself. “The first element is actually getting on the list. You’ve then got to win it, then you’ve got to make money out of it, and then you’ve got to deliver.”
Like many builders, Pezzuto is facing a shortage of workers, and the company has been actively trying to attract younger entrants to the industry and training them up through the company. The challenge is to find experienced personnel to train these younger workers.
“You’ve got to have the right people in place to actually be able to train recruits, otherwise you are probably doing yourself a disservice and also the worker that you take on,” he explains.
Horizon has big plans for the future. The company is hoping to expand and take on larger projects and is now in the process of getting federally accredited as well. Pezzuto is also a strong believer in giving back to the industry and says that he has become active in the local
Master Builders Association. “I have been heavily involved in the Master Builders commercial committees,” he says. “We advise on commercial matters, and everyone tries to help the industry as best way they can. It has been really good.
“It’s funny because you end up meeting a lot of people and competitors, but generally everyone wants the same thing—to do good work.
“I think in South Australia we’re pretty lucky because, especially in the commercial sector, a lot of building companies are actually very good. Everyone tries to do the best they can. Working together helps to raise standards and makes the industry stronger.”
