True grit keeps company alive

Ray Mountfort with examples of rosin (front) and turpene, from pine stumps. Photo/Ben Fraser

Rotorua's Ray Mountfort is proof perseverance pays off.

Three years ago a meeting was called to liquidate his company. Now, he's helping oversee construction of a multimillion-dollar manufacturing plant.

Back in 2011 he'd spent more than eight years developing a process to produce turpenes and rosins extracted from pine stumps and logs. A small-scale trial was proving successful. He knew there was a market for the products, he just needed the money to make it happen.

An American company was set to invest $12 million, a site in Kaingaroa was identified, and the venture was predicted to create up to 200 jobs. But the investment, like two similar proposed deals, fell through.

"I was brokenhearted," Mr Mountfort said. "I thought we had it, then we didn't have it."

At the meeting to discuss liquidation of his development company Pacific Pine Derivatives, Mr Mountfort made one last plea to shareholders.

"[I said] 'I believe we can find it [investment], just because this one's not going to work out, it doesn't mean we can't'."

They agreed and the search for investors continued.

Last August, after completing 18 months' due diligence, the finance was confirmed and the Ngongotaha-based Pacific T&R got straight to work on its Taupo plant.

'We didn't even stop for a drink," said Mr Mountfort, the company's chief executive.

He describes the investors as "blue chip" - the Companies Office website reveals Australia's Macquarie Capital Group and New Zealand company Selene Holdings each now own one third of Pacific T&R.

Construction began last year on the state-of-the-art plant on Miro St, Taupo, that will produce natural wood turpenes and natural wood rosins extracted from post-harvest pine stumps and resinous pine logs. The stumps and logs will be sourced from local, sustainably managed plantation pine estates.

Natural pine extractives are an important ingredient in many day-to-day consumables such as adhesive tapes, high-end paints, printing inks, chewing gums, fragrances and flavours.

The plant itself will be six or seven storeys high and produce 18,000 tonnes of product per annum. Almost all of it will be exported, Mr Mountfort said.

"There's a huge demand for these products."

With more than 100 people working on site at the moment, progress is good, although Mr Mountfort is understandably cautious - "things happen every day".

He said while a few locations had been considered, the Taupo site had the room the company needed - at just under 5ha - and had easy access to infrastructure that some of the more rural locations didn't have.

The manufacturing plant is expected to be fully operational in early 2015 with about 50 full-time staff to be employed at the Taupo site and Ngongotaha head office. Fourteen containers of plant components have already arrived from overseas, two more are due any day.

The first part of the plant, a chipper nicknamed "the beast", will be in action from Monday, to produce a small amount of product for a customer's pre-approval.

"It's been so fast I have not had time to stop," Mr Mountfort said.

But despite having the money in the bank and construction under way, he reckons there's still a way to go before he can sit back and reflect on his journey.

"All we have done is get to 'go'."