Page 9 - HW September 2020

hard news
revenue down 86% on the prior year, resulting in an $11 million loss for that month.
In May and June, the businesses “experienced mixed volumes”,
with declines in the Auckland and Christchurch regions while other regions were steady, year on year.
As previously signalled, the Distribution division has been subject
to Fletcher’s ongoing “rightsizing” and the associated costs were highlighted at year-end, amounting to $18 million in signi cant items relating to redundancies, the closure of PlaceMakers Antigua Street and Helensville sites.
In terms of developments, as you
will have seen in the last magazine and online, Distribution, as with all the other divisions, is working hard to add new digital channels for its customers.
Prior to March, the residential nishing businesses in the Building Products division (Winstone Wallboards, Tasman Insulation & Laminex) had been trading at or near record volumes with year-on-year margin improvements, although the Steel & Pipes businesses had experienced “subdued infrastructure sector activity combined with aggressive competition in key product categories”.
e Building Products businesses just about ceased operations during the Level 4 lockdown, resulting in a $22 million loss in April but bounced back in May and June.
Pre-lockdown, the Concrete division was also “tracking strongly” with
Firth seeing a strong lift in sales price, combined with a gain in market share,
a lift in domestic cement volumes for Golden Bay Cement, and increased earnings for Winstone Aggregates.
Post-lockdown, the Concrete division also experienced a “strong recovery
of activity” in May and June across all segments and products, with a slight gain in revenue.
e day following Fletcher Building’s year-end reveal, Wesfarmers also announced theirs. See Global Eyes on page 32 for a breakdown of Bunnings’ Australasian numbers (and note that Bunnings’ NZ numbers are not broken out at this stage).
Also see Global Eyes on page 33 to see how Fletcher Building’s Australian businesses fared.
www. etcherbuilding.com
Better growing everybody!
ONE EVENT THAT won’t be a ected by whichever Alert Level we’re at is Yates’ National Gardening Week – “Plants For A Better Planet” – which runs again this year over 19-26 October.
On-trend with Kiwis pivoting towards more self-grown produce, the programme will reward gardeners with a free packet of vegetable seeds.
Consumers simply register
online at www.yates.co.nz/ nationalgardeningweek between 1 and 18 October for their free seeds.
During the lead up to National Gardening Week, early September
will see the launch of the new “Yates Growing Community”.
It’s an online forum where gardeners can come together to share their successes, problems and aspirations while having fun growing that runs all year round and win prizes to boot.
www.yates.co.nz/ nationalgardeningweek
www.yates.co.nz/ growing-community/this-year/
Scotch brand’s September TVC
3M’s new seven-week TV campaign, “The best paint jobs start with Scotch Painter’s Tape”, is running from 6 September to 30 October 2020, including Labour Weekend – ideal for inspiring those long-weekend paint projects!
The national campaign airs on the TV3 network and features ScotchBlue Original Multi-Surface, Scotch Exterior and Scotch Delicate Surface Painter’s Tape TVCs, which will screen alongside the Scotch “Family” TVC.
www.mmm.com
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SEPTEMBER 2020 | NZHJ 7