How mates Adam Hall and Matt Carroll built AH Fencing, and are now eyeing expansion into Sydney

With just $3000 and an old ute, two schoolmates have built a commercial fencing business which will turnover $20m in 2025, despite the company having a rocky start.

Directors of AH Fencing Matt Carroll and Adam Hall at one of their projects.

Two school mates with just $3000 between them and an old ute who decided almost eight years ago to go out on their own, are forecasting their commercial fencing company will turnover $20m in the 2025 calendar year and they reckon they’re just getting “warming up”.

Brisbane-based AH Fencing co-managing director Adam Hall, 35, said their five-year plan is to be in every major city in Australia.

“We’re in Brisbane and Melbourne and then we’ll be in Sydney by the end if 2026, then Adelaide and Perth and the rest of them,” he said.

“We want to hit that $100m revenue mark by 2030 with the caveat of not only increasing revenue but increasing profitability as we go. We’re only really warming up.”

Mr Hall and co-managing director Matt Carroll, 34, met when they were at preschool at John Paul College at Daisy Hill south of Brisbane.

They left school after Year 12 and worked together with a number of commercial fencing contractors before going out on their own.

Mr Hall said they are “completely boot-strapped” starting with $3000 in 2018 and an old ute.

But it was not a spectacular start and in their first two years AH Fencing recorded $200,000 in losses.

“When we started we knew how to build fences but we had no idea how to run a business and that became pretty obvious when you look at our financial results for the first two years,” Mr Hall said.

“After 18 months we were approached by a business trades coach ProTrade United and they helped us at exactly the right time. If they had not come along we would not be here now.”

Directors of AH Fencing Matt Carroll and Adam Hall and at an Energex depot where they installed special fencing around the property.

Two years ago the moved into new headquarters in Northgate in Brisbane northern suburbs and around the same time expanded into Melbourne.

In those two years their Melbourne operation has grown to be 60 per cent the size of the Brisbane business and there are expectations it will draw level by the end of 2025.

In the 2025 financial year they expect to turnover $16m – a 50 per cent increase on the previous 12 months – and notch up $24m in 2025-26. In the 2025 calendar year they expect to turnover $20m.

One of the company’s major strengths is that unlike other similar businesses AH Fencing’s jobs usually only last between one to three months and they will notch up 400 commercial contracts in the 2025 calendar year at around the $100,000 a job mark or under.

“That’s a high quantity of jobs compared to any of our competitors who focus on larger projects,” Mr Hall said.

“We have systems and processes in place to create a repeatable service so that we can handle a larger volume of projects. Also, with the smaller jobs material cost increases don’t affect us as much.”

AH Fencing has about 50 staff which is expected to grow as the company expands.

Mr Hall said a large part of the business is focused on staff.

“When we started the business we wanted to create a workplace which people wanted to come to and that focus has never been stronger,” he said.

“We are focused on developing our people not just professionally but personally as well.

“When people say it’s hard to get good staff. I say it should be hard to get good staff because the top 5 per cent of people want to work with the top 5 per cent of businesses.

“For us it hasn’t been hard to get staff because we put a lot of effort into creating a business with a really good vision that people can get behind and want to be a part of.”

Originally published as How mates Adam Hall and Matt Carroll built AH Fencing, and are now eyeing expansion into Sydney