Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Four Fletcher factories in Auckland to re-open

Anne Gibson
By Anne Gibson
Property Editor·NZ Herald·
8 Sep, 2021 05:30 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Back making those Batts. Photo / Dean Purcell

Back making those Batts. Photo / Dean Purcell

Dozens of Auckland staff at the $6 billion Fletcher Building are preparing to return to work this week at four Penrose and Onehunga factories.

Staff will resume work at two Winstone Wallboards, Tasman Insulation and Pacific CoilCoaters factories, supplying products nationally where construction sites can operate on lower alert levels.

The Government yesterday announced a U-turn on the Auckland manufacturing ban under alert level 4. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Building and Construction Minister Poto Williams said some plants could operate to supply materials needed outside Auckland to allow the $26b a year construction sector to continue.

The Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment will manage the process of eligible companies to ensure the work is being done safely under level 4 rules, Williams said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The products must be a critical component of residential construction, there is limited supply and manufacturers must have health and safety measures in place to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

"Plasterboard, gypsum plaster, coated roofing steel and insulation meet this criteria."

A Fletcher spokesman said today Tasman Insulation making Pink Batts, Pacific CoilCoaters making ColourCote steel and aluminium roofing products and Winstone Wallboards making GIB board and plaster would resume operations after the Government change.

But the Health Order first needed to be signed off, the businesses had a huge amount of work to do before re-opening, production might resume later this week and distribution could begin early next week, he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

All four plants would be run with strict new health and safety measures in place to ensure anti-pandemic protocols were adhered to, he said.

Winstone Wallboards has two plants: one makes the GIB plaster for gib stopping, the other makes the board itself.

Discover more

New Zealand

Govt allows manufacture of building supplies during lockdown

07 Sep 02:17 AM
Construction

'An important win': Relief for 'crippling' building material drought

07 Sep 06:00 PM

The Premium Debate: Subscribers have a say on the building materials drought

08 Sep 09:19 PM

The plants are around the Great South Rd and Onehunga areas.

Tasman Insulation is at Holloway Pl where it has been making the batts since 1961. Its furnace needs to be reignited for manufacturing to resume, using the spun glass fibre method.

Tasman Insulation's plant in Penrose where they make Pink Batts. Photo / Dean Purcell
Tasman Insulation's plant in Penrose where they make Pink Batts. Photo / Dean Purcell

Hamish McBeath, chief executive of Fletcher's building products division, is in charge of the huge reboot exercise, running the business while most other parts of the company stay shut.

"We are starting to mobilise people working through safety reinductions and commencing heating the plants. However, full production won't be achieved until the end of the week with despatch aimed for Monday," McBeath said today.

The building products division employs more than 2000 staff in about 60 manufacturing, distribution and sales sites in New Zealand.

Those staff create products for homes, buildings and infrastructure including insulation, plasterboard, steel products, laminate surfaces and plastic and concrete piping.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Winstone Wallboards, Laminex New Zealand, Tasman Insulation, Humes, Iplex Pipelines New Zealand, and joint venture Altus are in the highly profitable division which also runs steel businesses under the Fletcher Steel brand.

Winstone Wallboards is New Zealand's only manufacturer and largest marketer of gypsum plasterboard, drywall systems, and associated products and services. The company has been operating since 1927 and manufactures plasterboard systems under the GIB brand.

Its Onehunga plant will be shut once Fletcher finishes construction of its new $400m Bay of Plenty plasterboard plant, due to open in 2023. The new plant is much larger and planned to be more efficient.

Ross Taylor, Fletcher chief executive, said in announcing the new plant last year: "Our current site in Onehunga is landlocked which has prevented us from expanding our operations and improving efficiencies by consolidating manufacturing and distribution on the same site. The site located in the Tauriko industrial park is more than double the size of the current facility and will allow for even further capacity growth in the future."

Tasman Insulation makes products for homes, commercial and industrial complexes and has PinkFit installers and Sisalation building foils and underlays businesses.

ColorCote is pre-painted steel and aluminium roofing and cladding products, made here since 1973.

Fletcher's building products division made $1.4b revenue in the year to June 30, 2021, up on the $1.1b previously. Revenue rose 19 per cent due to strong demand from the residential and infrastructure sector, the company said.

Fletcher shares are trading here around $7.47, nearly double the $3.69 a year ago.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

NZ e-bike brand shines at Eurobike global showcase

02 Jul 03:13 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Woman dies after crash on Tauranga Eastern Link

02 Jul 01:22 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Wet, wet, wet: Rain warning for BoP as more tropical weather looms

01 Jul 11:38 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

NZ e-bike brand shines at Eurobike global showcase

NZ e-bike brand shines at Eurobike global showcase

02 Jul 03:13 AM

Velduro says its e-bikes were the talk of the event in Frankfurt.

Woman dies after crash on Tauranga Eastern Link

Woman dies after crash on Tauranga Eastern Link

02 Jul 01:22 AM
Wet, wet, wet: Rain warning for BoP as more tropical weather looms

Wet, wet, wet: Rain warning for BoP as more tropical weather looms

01 Jul 11:38 PM
'I love what I do': Hospital cleaner, 83, marks 50-year work anniversary

'I love what I do': Hospital cleaner, 83, marks 50-year work anniversary

01 Jul 09:02 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP