Fletcher building have opened Clever Core, a purpose-built offsite prefab house manufacturing facility.
Video / Michael Craig
Fletcher Building’s much-vaunted Clever Core prefab house-building factory at Wiri in South Auckland will shut, to be replaced next year by a PlaceMakers frame and truss plant.
A spokeswoman said Clever Core had not worked out and would close by June 30.
“Fletcher Building has made arecent and difficult decision to close Clever Core, our off-site manufacturing business.
“Despite the many benefits, the volumes required to be commercially viable have not materialised, due in part to the challenging market downturn and a reluctance within the New Zealand housing industry to adopt off-site manufacturing at scale,” she said.
The frame and truss plant would open there next year.
Fletcher Building's Clever Core off-site construction factory in Wiri. Photo / Supplied
Clever Core staff are being consulted on their roles. The spokeswoman said the aim was to redeploy as many people as possible into other positions throughout the Fletcher Building business.
The business had originally planned for its frame and truss plant to be in the former Winstone Wallboards site in Onehunga.
“Relocating to Wiri allows us to fast-track delivery of the new frame and truss plant by about a year, reduce capital expenditure, and make the Felix St site available for potential sale,” the spokeswoman said.
In 2019 Fletcher opened its long-awaited, high-tech, house-building factory, aiming to cut a 22-week lead time down to six weeks, saying at the time it was New Zealand’s largest such plant.
The factory was in a 5000sq m or half-hectare warehouse, leased from NZX-listed Property For Industry on Cavendish Drive.
Prefabrication of a house could be done in one day, transported to a site on a second day and it could take only about six weeks to do all the finishing, guests at the plant were told last decade.
Fletcher said at that time its new factory would attempt to accelerate house-building by producing core structural components in as little as a day.
“Manufactured wall, floor and roof components, which contain locally sourced insulation, double-glazed windows and allowances for wiring and plumbing, are then transferred to build sites and constructed into the weather-tight core of a house by specially trained builders,” the company said in 2019.
“This reduces on-site build times by 60%, or from 22 weeks to around six to 10 weeks.”
Ross Taylor, who was then Fletcher chief executive, said the factory was a $15 million investment and a significant advancement in housing development capability.
Production at the Wiri plant in 2019, when it opened. Photo / Michael Craig
“Our Clever Core facility will produce core components for at least 500 new homes each year, including 100 by the end of this calendar year. It uses design for manufacture and assembly principles to streamline the design, consenting and manufacturing process,” Taylor said at the time.
The aim was to speed up build times, aid quality control and reduce building waste by up to 80% for each house.
Those in the residential construction sector said they were unsurprised about the closure.
“This hasn’t gone well for Fletcher,” one said, noting the severe downturn in residential building consents lately. The factory’s opening was not the best timing in terms of the way the housing market had performed.
Taylor said in 2019: “Clever Core will initially support our Fletcher Living developments, but we plan to extend the offering to group home builders and retirement home operators in the future. Once production is at scale, we believe Clever Core will play a pivotal role in helping the industry deliver more quality, healthy homes that Kiwis love, faster.”
Fletcher Building's off-site home manufacturing facility will close at the end of June. Photo / Fletcher Building
Up to 35 people were employed at the factory, including technicians, engineers and carpenters. Some arrived via a scheme to get young, first-time job-seekers into work and training.
Specialist training was to be provided for Clever Core employees in collaboration with industry training organisations, Fletcher said last decade.
Fletcher Living planned to use the Clever Core products in its many Auckland housing developments and the first order of 100 homes was due to be delivered by the end of 2019.
Projects at Ormiston, Swanson and Beachlands were to get the items first.
In 2017, Fletcher unveiled its two-houses-in-four-days demonstration at Hobsonville Point and now builds more than 1000 new residential homes, terraced places and apartments annually.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
