Kiwi Wool sells building as online sales grow

GOING DIGITAL: Kiwi Wool is selling its high-profile Stortford Lodge building as business moves online. Pictured are Brenda Conlon (L), David, Bella and Kerry Mackintosh. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

Kiwi Wool is selling its building as business moves online.

Kerry and David Mackintosh bought the building, on the corner of Maraekakaho and Orchard roads in Hastings' Stortford Lodge, in 1999 for their insulation, pet bed and wool receivable business.

The online Kiwi Wool pet bed and insulation side of the family business has grown to the point where the building was no longer needed, he said.

The wool receivable part of the business "disappeared" after the law changed making all exportable pelts pass through licensed operators such as freezing works, providing traceability.

Declining sheep numbers also affected business - falling from 70 million to 30 million.

"The combination of these two factors has meant less wool coming through the system, with many farmers going back to shearing once a year and the shift from pastoral farming to dairying, viticulture and other land uses," he said.

Bledisloe New Zealand, an Australia-owned chain of funeral directors, bought the site and plans a crematorium and funeral home neighbouring the Hastings District Council cemetery and crematorium.

Bledisloe is the largest New Zealand provider of funeral services, with more than 20 funeral firms and associated businesses. It is owned by listed Australian company InvoCare, the country's largest operator of funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums.