Sawmill to double in size

Carter Holt Harvey plans to spend millions of dollars expanding the former TDC Sawmills in Whangarei and says the plant has "huge potential". Sawmill founders Tony and Claire Davies-Colley sold the 12-year-old business to CHH last December for an undisclosed price (guestimates ranged up to $50 million). The sale came less than a year after TDC commissioned a state-of-the-art automated mill at the top of the hill above its original plant, off Kioreroa Rd.
Now the new owner has announced plans to build a vast shed to house equipment to dry and plane green timber from the mill-on-the-hill.
At 15,500sq m, the planned development will be more than twice the size of the adjacent mill, but virtually invisible from the road, located at the rear of the hill-top site. CHH has applied for resource consent to build a boiler, kiln and dry mill.
The region will reap additional benefit from the project because the shed will probably be built out of laminated veneer lumber manufactured at the company's LVL plant at Marsden Pt.
Access to an extensive network of suppliers is enabling CHH to ramp up production and achieve greater efficiencies through being able to put through more logs of similar sizes - but increased production means more and more product is having to be sent to CHH mills in the central North Island for drying and planing.
The Whangarei plant is currently drying and planing about 60 percent of the green timber; the percentage will keep dropping as production increases. The new boiler, kiln and drying mill will enable all green timber to be processed on-site.
CHH Woodproducts chief executive Michael Falconer said company philosophy was to make all mills self-sufficient - "it makes sound economic and environmental sense to add as much value as possible to the product on-site".
He said CHH was still learning about the capacity of the Finish/Canadian state-of-the-art equipment at the Whangarei mill (now trading as CHH Woodproducts Whangarei Mill).
The company had a similar but smaller mill in Australia.
"This is new technology and we are learning on the job and I think we will be learning for quite a while yet," he said.
In Whangarei recently to mark the transition of the site to CHH Woodproducts Whangarei Mill, Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts chief executive Michael Falconer commended Whangarei couple Tony and Claire Davies-Colley for their vision in establishing TDC Sawmills, and said his company was "very happy" to have acquired the business.
"It is already one of our premier sites," he said. "We have about nine sawmills in Australia and New Zealand and this is one of the best. It has huge potential."
He said his company had the resources to take the Whangarei operation "to the next level". The sale was a natural progression for TDC Sawmills. He said CHH had already invested heavily in additional safety training and equipment as production ramped up. The customer base had been wholly retained and the staff had remained stable. All staff had access to company benefits like medical, health, superannuation and insurance services.
The chief executive said about 25 new jobs would be created, bringing the workforce to around 230, but he wanted to create "a pool of expertise" within the company and would be offering existing staff as many opportunities as possible, along with the necessary training.
"But we still need the support of the local community to make the operation work well," he said. "The real message is that we are trying to be a good employer, creating opportunities for Whangarei. We want to make the mill a good place to work so it will grow. We have a lot to bring to the community and we are excited about being here."