Mitre 10 eyes layoffs

A dramatic slump in new home building has being blamed for a leading Wairarapa building supplies firm planning to shed staff.
The management of Mitre 10 Masterton has called a meeting of all staff employed at its Queen Street shop and Ngaumutawa Road depot tonight to explain what must be done to slash the wage bill.
Joint director Garry Daniell said ideally the company would like to cut staff numbers through voluntary redundancy but if this could not be achieved then a selection of staff to lose their jobs would have to be made.
He said about 50 people are employed, but he did not want to pre-empt anything before tonight's meeting in the Frank Cody Lounge, by indicating how many staff would have to go.
Mr Daniell said the hard decision to cut back on staff came after attempts had been made in other ways to cut costs in line with the economic downturn.
Some months back Mitre 10 tightened up its credit timelines and also imposed a small surcharge on accounts that remained unpaid over a month.
"In the end it all depended on new housing starts and they have dropped quite dramatically.
"We have kept staff at the same level expecting there would be a upturn but that has not eventuated.
"Even though the global recession is said to be bottoming out it will be a long time before improvements filter through to businesses."
Mr Daniell said cutting staff was a last resort as the people who worked for Mitre 10 have long been looked on as the company's finest asset, but it had become crucial to do so.
Some staff have been with the firm since the franchise came to Masterton 25 years ago. The new home building slump had been the main factor for cost cutting as commercial building seemed to have held up fairly well.
Mr Daniell said whereas the "customer count" had remained much the same the amount of money people were spending on home renovations and the like had dropped noticeably.
He said plans to build a mega store on the Ngaumutawa Road site hadn't changed although that would only happen when the economic situation allowed.
Only recently the firm got confirmation that the site was now clear of any contamination caused by a previous "petroleum related business."
Mr Daniell said it hadn't helped matters having businesses that traded over 7 days a week working out of two locations.
"I am sure that getting the business onto one site would cut the wage bill considerably."
He said tonight's meeting was a chance for management to fully explain to all staff what needed to be done.
It would not involve staff from other businesses Mr Daniell has an interest in, such as Wairarapa Concrete Ltd.
Last week Wairarapa Concrete's Featherston branch shut up shop with the loss of three jobs.
Mr Daniell said the need to cease business had come about because the Featherston branch catered mostly for the dairy industry, making troughs and pre-stressed concrete slabs.
The Masterton branch made concrete water tanks and other items and were unaffected.
Mr Daniell said when orders picked up for the Featherston made products he hoped to be able to re-open the branch.