Latest news with #HamishMcBeath
NZ Herald
21-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Fletcher Building quitting $60m site, Christchurch developer Wolfbrook's North Island hiring run
Penrose is a valuable site which has hit the market in the downturn. Auckland Council values 37-41 Felix St, Te Papa at $60m and shows how immensely under-developed the site is: 5.08ha of land with only 3100sq m of floor area on it. An aerial view of Winstone Wallboards' new $400m factory in Tauranga. Photo / Supplied The new Tauriko site in Tauranga is more than twice that at nearly 13ha, showing just how much manufacturing has changed. Tauriko began production in September 2023, pumping out more wallboard faster and more efficiently than the old plant. Winstone controls 94% of the New Zealand market and wallboard is heavy to import – so such a big investment made sense. Colliers' Greg Goldfinch is advertising the vacant wallboard site: 'Occupiers, investors and developers must consider this opportunity, given it's been many years since such a land holding in this precinct was available.' Hamish McBeath (from left), Stewart Vaughan and David Thomas at the new plant. The company's Tauriko site is 12.78ha with a massive 6.7ha of floor space on it. The site was picked with the concept of expansion in mind. Winstone Wallboards' new Gib manufacturing plant opened at the Tauriko Business Estate in 2023. At 440m in length, the main manufacturing and storage building stretches nearly half a kilometre and is 110m wide. The reason it's that long is because of the process of making a wallboard. The compounds within the plaster need a certain length of time – running for at least 330m at a certain speed – before they enter giant kiln-style ovens to be fired. About 2.6 million square metres of plasterboard can also be stored in the new plant's main building, bringing manufacturing and distribution under one roof for the first time. Winstone offers 22 different types of products, including EzyBrace, Aqualine, Noiseline, Wet Area, Fire, Tough, Reverberation Control, Radiation Shielding and Rondo products. It first started supplying board into the market from Tauriko in early August 2023. 'By the end of August/beginning of September that year, 75% of the board range was being manufactured off the Tauriko line. By the end of December 2023 or the start of 2024, we were in full production with the remaining board range,' a Fletcher spokeswoman told Property Insider. Winstone Wallboard's history shows it moved into what was in 1971 a newly-built Penrose factory. That property served the manufacturer for 52 years. We are due to hear more from Fletcher next month when its full-year result for the June 30, 2025 year is out on August 20. Wolfbrook hunts north Christchurch's Wolfbrook Residential has recruited about six staff from Auckland and Tauranga lately. CEO Guy Randall cited a string of reasons for people heading to his city. 'It's due to lower house prices, less traffic, a perception of less crime, lifestyle reasons and the energy in Christchurch is pretty good. People come down for the weekend to a music festival and go 'let's move here',' Randall said. Guy Randall is chief executive of Wolfbrook Residential which has its headquarters in Christchurch. Photo / Guy Randall Wolfbrook has built 1100 new townhouses and apartments but is moving to more standalone places around Halswell. Property management has become a big business after buying Du Val's book and two others to give it more than 2000 homes to look after. And Wolfbrook bought its first Queenstown property, at Shotover Country on Ladies Mile where it plans 42 terraced homes, Randall said. It has built more than 200 new Kāinga Ora homes in the last few years and Randall said when the market turned down, Wolfbrook had picked up all those contracts. Christchurch remains its HQ and where Wolfbrook is building 70% of its new homes. Kāinga Ora is no longer in the market for new homes. 'The market is flat but there are always opportunities there,' Randall said. Far worse than the GFC When a liquidator says things are bad, you know it's grim. Gareth Hoole of Ecovis said: 'I've never seen people suffering the way they are.' The global financial crisis in 2007/08 was mainly property-related, whereas this downturn is far wider and affects more people, Hoole said. Falling house prices would be a shock to many: 'People always thought property won't go down in value, but guess what? It did.' Car vending machines Singapore already has a car vending machine, opened by Autobahn Motors last year. Photo / Telegraph Eye-catching multi-level glass car vending machines in many countries overseas are yet to arrive here. Mark Francis of luxury car storage business Matchbox doesn't expect them here soon. 'I have looked at this concept. It's possibly a bit gimmicky and I am not sure if New Zealand is ready for that,' Francis said. Last decade, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and United States car maker Ford unveiled an unstaffed car vending machine in China's southern city of Guangzhou. The machines in Asia and North America are often about five storeys tall. Matchbox members' lounge and storage facility. Matchbox Auckland. The Chinese ones had 42 cars, of various models, including the Ford Explorer SUV and Mustang. Francis and fellow car enthusiast Zlatko Filipchich started Matchbox, which is this country's first members-only luxury car storage building. It is at Penrose's Great South Rd. Anne Gibson has been the Herald's property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
NZ Herald
15-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Fletcher Building restructures Australian division, forecasts $15m savings
Hamish McBeath, previously New Zealand building products chief executive, would lead this division. The second unit would include concrete-related businesses like Winstone Aggregates, Golden Bay Cement, Firth Concrete and Humes, the New Zealand steel businesses, and Australia's Stramit. Thornton Williams, the concrete division chief executive, would lead this division. Due to the restructuring, former Australian division chief executive Gareth O'Reilly will leave the company. Fletcher CEO Andrew Reding acknowledged O'Reilly's contributions. 'Alongside this restructuring, a further review of the company's corporate structure has been carried out and it is anticipated that this will deliver approximately $15 million annualised savings in structural costs in the short term which are in addition to the approximately $200m of cost out targeted for FY25,' the company said today. The review is ongoing, and the group will continue to identify opportunities for further material cost reductions. Investors will get more information at the company's investor day on June 24. Reding gave a downbeat update on the business. Since the December 31, 2024 half-year results were issued, Fletcher's businesses 'have seen no significant improvement in market conditions, with market volumes continuing to be challenging due to macroeconomic uncertainties and the lack of any material momentum in the recovery of New Zealand's economy'. The company's businesses operating in the commercial and infrastructure segments continue to face reduced or deferred spending, partly due to recent weather events and reduced sub-division activity, Reding said. Residential property sales also remain at subdued levels, reflecting lower levels of liquidity across the market, he said. In March, Fletcher announced its much-vaunted Clever Core prefab house-building factory at Wiri in South Auckland will shut, to be replaced next year by a PlaceMakers frame and truss plant. Clever Core has not worked out and would close by June 30. 'Fletcher Building has made a recent and difficult decision to close Clever Core, our off-site manufacturing business,' a spokeswoman said.
