Page 8 - HW March 2022

hard news
ARA Group buys
Sopersmac
On the 1st of February, ARA Group NZ (ARA), completed the acquisition of New Zealand’s Sopersmac.
Per an announcement in mid-February, the Directors of Wilson
& Macindoe sold their partnership interests and shares in distributors of architectural door hardware Sopersmac to New South Wales-based building and facilities company ARA Group.
Successful family-owned businesses Wilson & Macindoe and Sopers merged in 2013, forming Sopers Macindoe, which would be rebranded four years later as Sopersmac.
Sopersmac has 70 team members in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, and Christchurch.
ARA Group is an employee-owned company now nearing its 20th year of business, showing a record FY20 turnover of AU$621 million and employing 2,500+ people in Australia and New Zealand.
Sopersmac CE Bonny Harman said
in an email to New Zealand customers last month: “We want to assure you
that there will be no interruption to our business operations, it is important to us that you continue to receive the same level of service that you have always been able to rely on.
“You will continue to work with the same people in our business as you have in the past, our team remains the same.
“We are grateful to you for your ongoing support and we look forward to seeing what new opportunities we can bring to you once we are part of the ARA Group.”
www.sopersmac.co.nz https://aragroup.com.au/
Winstone Wallboards talks about plasterboard supply
MANY CORE PRODUCTS, including timber, aluminium joinery, cladding
and plasterboard, have been in short supply for some months now, with much speculation and rumour mongering about the whys and wherefores and leaving retailers and merchants scrambling for alternative supply.
On the first of March, Winstone Wallboards GM David Thomas felt
the need to publicly explain what has been happening with GIB plasterboard supply and explain the issues and proposed solutions that the company has underway.
It is clear that, even with both manufacturing sites operating 24/7, producing plasterboard “at record levels”, and despatching enough plasterboard for 1,000 houses a week, supply continues to be constrained.
David Thomas (photo above) explains: “Prior to last year’s August lockdown, we were producing enough plasterboard to meet demand.
“Since then, New Zealand has continued building at a record pace, resulting in increased demand for all building materials.
“This, combined with customers placing GIB plasterboard orders further and further in advance, has resulted in Winstone Wallboards’ forward orders and lead times continuing to climb over the past six months.”
Indeed, he says, forward orders for GIB are currently more than double what they were back in July 2021 which means that demand is “quite simply outstripping production capacity.”
With the new Tauranga plant some way off being productive (photo above), it
was decided the best short-term solution was to move to an on-allocation system for GIB plasterboard (including GIB Barrierline and GIB Weatherline) from July, to “help better match supply with real-time demand and deliver an overall more consistent volume and equitable supply to the market.”
“Be assured that we are fully focused on helping you get the plasterboard you need on site when you need it,” underlines David Thomas.
Construction of GIB’s new Tauranga facility is on track for the plant to be online in June next year and, says the company, will increase plasterboard production capacity in New Zealand to “well above current, and forecast, demand levels.”
Also addressing issues of plasterboard demand, in late February Winstone Wallboards stated that it would not deliver products direct to building sites that were not “plasterboard ready” – i.e. sites where the roof is installed and the building is weatherproof.
www.gib.co.nz
6 NZHJ | MARCH 2022
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