NZ wants bigger CD slice

By Keith Newman

From next month, New Zealand will have two CD manufacturing plants competing for a slice of the music and software business which sees about 15 million units imported each year to meet local demands.

Stebbing Recording Studios has invested $10 million in installing a new CD production plant which will officially open in mid-June. Test pressings have already been made for EMI and now engineers from the Netherlands and Germany are training staff to operate the production-line equipment.

The music industry alone imports a million units a month and software and multimedia titles are around 200,000 a month, according to Statistics NZ.

Software Images, which established the country's first CD pressing plant in Grey Lynn early last year, claims to be have grown its share of the market from 6.8 per cent to 10 per cent since it began manufacturing locally. The bulk of the production in its $3 million CD factory is CD-Roms for the software industry.

However, the company is picking up business from a growing local music market, having processed about 300 titles from independent labels since it began.

Businesses and organisations also use CD-Roms to distribute promotions, samples, study material and other content.

With Stebbing Studios entering the picture, Software Images managing director Allan Morton believes there is potential for the competing plants to locally manufacture about 20 per cent of CDs currently being imported.

Both companies are ready to move to the next stage in extending their production facilities for emerging DVD technology, but will wait until the market matures before investing in the necessary bonding and laminating equipment. Software Images expects to take an order for its first Kiwi DVD later this year, but this will be mastered in Melbourne.

Eldred Stebbing, director of Ponsonby-based Stebbing Studios, said his new CD plant was originally a joint venture with Hargon International which it bought out last year.

"Previously we only provided a service to record companies. Now we are in an advantageous position to take advantage of the CD-ROM market," said Mr Stebbing.

The new plant has capacity to handle up to five million units a year.

"This plant will be the most modern in the southern hemisphere. It used to take 10 hours to make a master. Now it can be done in 25 minutes - it's all robotic, very few staff are required," he said.

Mr Stebbing said the move would free up previous bottlenecks which frequently occurred when record companies imported 1000 units of a new album and found the demand greater than expected.

"We can give them 24-hour turnaround and help record dealers meet their demand."