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Whiteware manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Appliances has put its 16.5ha Mosgiel manufacturing site and 4ha of land behind its East Tamaki base in Auckland on the market as it moves production overseas.
The company is closing its manufacturing operations in Dunedin, Brisbane and California and shifting the work
to a combination of existing sites in Thailand and Italy, and a newly bought manufacturing factory in Mexico.
Brett Butterworth, vice-president corporate planning for Fisher & Paykel, says the company's competitors globally are manufacturing in low-cost labour countries. "We must supply our products at world prices, and cannot stand apart from that trend."
Moving production offshore means lower freight, duty and labour costs, enabling Fisher & Paykel to remain internationally competitive.
The properties are being sold through Colliers International industrial brokers Andrew Hooper and Greg Goldfinch, who say the Mosgiel property is an "outstanding" manufacturing site set in landscaped grounds.
"Set within a modern industrial estate about 20km southwest of Dunedin's city centre, it is undoubtedly one of the better-quality manufacturing premises in New Zealand," says Hooper.
Production at Mosgiel will finish at the end of March next year and the company will leave the premises by the end of June, although Fisher & Paykel may take a lease over some of the office space for its 90-strong cooking and dishwashing products research and development team.
Butterworth says all machinery, tools and associated plant will be removed from the manufacturing site and split between Fisher & Paykel's Thailand, Mexico and Italian plants.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances moved onto an original 10ha Mosgiel property when it bought the Shacklock stove manufacturing business in 1978 and added to the main 1977-erected four-bay building in the 1980s.
Facilities manager Ron Askin says there was a major expansion in 1977 and two big factory additions in 2004. In 2005-06, a 3515sq m office was added to the main facility. The main predominantly clear span, 8m stud factory now covers 21,736sq m - equating to 2.17ha - and is temperature-controlled and heated under floor.
To cater for planned expansions the company had to buy more land and the entire site stretched across three titles.
The 222 Dukes Rd titles include the main factory, a detached stores building of 301sq m used for engineering and property maintenance workshops, a stand-alone 214sq m social room and adjacent 130sq m training area. Askin says these smaller buildings are relocatable. The property also contains a separate 52sq m concrete block audio testing room. The site is extensively developed with sealed driveways and car parks, garden plots, lawns and some perimeter fences.
A former 1940s Taieri Airport hangar sits on the title at 200 Dukes Rd. About 20 years ago the site was subdivided and the building converted for use as a bulk store. Fisher & Paykel has replaced the concrete floor and installed lights but Askin says the building is largely in its original state. An internal asphalt road to the main factory has been laid.
Hooper says an unrivalled feature of the 41 Odlins Rd title is a rail siding, container crane and 5000sq m stone chip tar-sealed carpark.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances employ a part-time groundsman to look after the extensive gardens and it takes three contractors a morning to mow the lawns, which have been used for a golf driving range and cricket.
"It is like a botanic garden and is one of the nicest properties in Otago, featuring blue cedar, rowanberry, gum and ornamental trees that give colour all year, but particularly in the autumn," says Askin, who has been with the company for 44 years.
Hooper says the property would suit logistics and agriculture companies or any sector that relies on rail or centralised transport. "It is in an area where agriculture is changing, more products are being produced for export and there is not a lot of available warehousing.
"It will appeal to a multinational owner-operator, South Island developers and investors."
In Auckland, Fisher & Paykel has 4ha of land at 78 Kerwyn Ave, East Tamaki for sale. It was part of the original site on one title Fisher & Paykel Appliances bought for its manufacturing base in the 1970s. After a number of building expansions across the land, it kept the site for future expansion, but with the change in its manufacturing strategy it is no longer needed.
Goldfinch says it is the last good sized piece of greenfield land left in East Tamaki and possibly South Auckland. "It's a chance for a larger owner-occupier who wants to be in one of Auckland's prime industrial areas to buy the site, or for developers and investors to get back into the market. There won't be a better block of land available than this for a long time."
Fisher & Paykel Appliances is subdividing the land from its main site at 78 Springs Rd and Butterworth says it expects to have resource consent in the next few weeks.
Goldfinch says the land, which has street access from Kerwyn and Zelanian Aves, has been used by Ports of Auckland as a working port for some time and has a hardstand area for heavy machinery. "There is the possibility a new owner could earn a holding income from the 1.2ha port area."
The property has a Manukau District Council Business 5 zoning, which allows moderate warehousing, distribution and manufacturing businesses to operate. Goldfinch says the property can take 20,000sq m of building coverage and could possibly be further subdivided into about eight sections if resource consent is gained.
"Land values in recent transactions have been in the range of $300 to $450 per square metre. The majority of other sites in East Tamaki for sale are a lot smaller, so a definitive price is hard to gauge," says Goldfinch.
Butterworth says money from the sale of both properties will go to help fund relocation moves and the buying of the Thailand and Mexico manufacturing properties.
