Page 16 - HW June-July 2021

hard news
Fox & Gunn plays
safety card
Fox & Gunn is now New Zealand’s official and exclusive distributor of Sqwincher, Ergodyne and Greven safety products, distributing to all hardware and trade- related merchants nationally.
Ergodyne delivers the kind of innovative and well-crafted safety gear that safety professionals demand, workers desire and job sites require.
Sqwincher is an electrolyte enhanced drink for effective hydration that is designed to help reduce heat-related illness and accidents. It only takes
2% of dehydration to result in up to a 50% decrease in work and mental performance.
Last but not least, Greven skincare products provide industrial skincare for before, during and after work and offer solutions for many of the primary causes of occupational skin problems.
www.foxgunn.co.nz
Waste not, want not...
Unitec, Mitre 10 MEGA Glenfield and commercial construction company Naylor Love have together been working to identify where and what types of plastic appear in building projects and to design out waste where possible.
Construction timber is typically delivered to building sites in packs up to 6m long and covered in a plastic wrap to protect it from weather during transportation and while stored on site.
Once unwrapped, the plastic goes into the general waste bin and then to landfill as there’s no reuse stream available.
However, thanks to funding from Auckland Council’s Waste Minimisation
& Innovation Fund (see the shortened URL below), Naylor Love and Mitre 10
are trialling new Timber Pack Covers, purpose-made heavy-duty tarps that can be used many times over.
Mitre 10 NZ is promising more to come on the waste minimisation front, so watch this space.
https://bit.ly/3ypt34D
Winners of the 2021 NZCB Apprentice Challenge (L- R): Ryan Whitburn; winner Marc Palmer; and Lucile Richardson.
Apprentices rise to the Challenge
LAST MONTH MORE than 800 builders and industry stakeholders attended this year’s New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) Annual Conference & Expo in Wellington.
At the same time, the winner of the 2021 Apprentice Challenge program, New Zealand’s top carpentry apprentice, was also named.
South Canterbury’s Marc Palmer won the coveted title in the national final of the NZCB Apprentice Challenge sponsored by ITM after competing against 18 other regional finalists from across the country.
Lucile Richardson from Waikato
placed second, and Ryan Whitburn from Otago placed third, from among
a diverse line-up of finalists that represented the changing face of New Zealand’s trades, with a record number of women competing and a number of older apprentices who have started their carpentry career later in life.
The event was part of a three-
day conference which presented an opportunity for attendees to look
at the sector’s most pressing issues under the lens of sustainability for the environment, their businesses, and the trade itself.
https://apprenticechallenge.nz/
Growth in retail apprenticeships
DID YOU KNOW that more than 700 retail apprentices are embarking on their training journey this year?
Did you even know there were apprenticeships in retail?
“It may be a surprise to many Kiwis that there is a retail apprenticeship, and such a comprehensive range of nationally recognised training and qualifications,” admits retail ITO Service IQ’s Andrew McSweeney.
The workplace-based ServiceIQ Retail Apprenticeship results in the award of two New Zealand Certificate qualifications
over the two-year on-job programme. After completing their apprenticeship,
employees will have knowledge and skills applicable across the wide range of modern retail businesses and environments.
A few of the aspects the apprenticeship covers include sales and business performance, team leadership, staff performance, applicable legislation,
stock maintenance and loss prevention, and customer experience, service, and complaints.
www.serviceiq.org.nz/training/retail/
14 NZHJ | JUNE/JULY 2021
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz