Page 14 - HW December 2020

hard news
No transport? Take ours!
ABOVE: Departing Prostate Cancer Foundation CEO Graeme Woodside receives the goodies from our own Susan Kennedy.
BELOW: 2020 Father’s Day Frenzy winners were Rashid & Fatima Diwan for Auckland’s Point Chevalier Hammer Hardware.
Who won our 2020 Father’s Day Frenzy?
Our 2020 Father’s Day Frenzy winners
in support of the Prostate Cancer Foundation were Rashid & Fatima Diwan at Auckland’s Point Chevalier Hammer Hardware, with the balance of the goodies going to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand to help raise funds.
New Mt Wellington
retail centre
A brand-new retail centre at 86 Lunn Avenue in Mount Wellington, between Farro Fresh and New World, will be anchored by Kings Plant Barn.
The development on the former Waste Management corporate headquarters site is “at the heart of
a large and established catchment
that encompasses fast-growing Stonefields and the affluent eastern suburbs of Remuera, Ellerslie, St Johns, St Heliers, Mission Bay, Kohimarama and Glendowie”.
Due for completion in mid-2021, the garden centre will be Kings Plant Barn’s eighth site in greater Auckland, while national premium appliance retailer Kitchen Things has agreed terms for a 1,175m2 showroom space fronting Lunn Av in the same development.
www.kings.co.nz
FROM LATE NOVEMBER,
Cityhop vans will be located at selected Auckland Mitre 10 MEGA stores and may proliferate around the country if uptake is significant.
Says Mitre 10 NZ’s Chief Operations Officer Andrea Scown: “We’re always looking for ways to make our customers’ lives easier.
“Partnering with
Cityhop creates easy transport choices – no keys, no paperwork, just a van when they need it.
“Customers can buy whatever they need and have the confidence they’ll be able to get it home on the day, even if it won’t fit in the car.”
Ben Carter, General Manager of Cityhop says: “Using a Cityhop cargo van by the hour is fast, convenient and easy.
“Partnering with Mitre 10 allows us to provide safe, useful and affordable
transport options to their local communities. Plus, every van has a reversing camera, so families won’t have to argue about how to reverse a trailer!”
Costing from $12.50 per hour, Cityhop vans require booking and are available at Mitre 10 MEGA stores
at Warkworth, Albany, Glenfield, Westgate, Henderson, New Lynn, Mt Wellington, Botany, Takanini, Manukau and Pukekohe.
www.cityhop.co.nz/mitre10/
The case for an NZ digital product database
NEW ZEALAND’S BUILDING and construction industry can lift its productivity by establishing a digital database on building products that’s accessible to all industry members and provides them with important product assurance information.
This opportunity is explored in Digital Product Data for Lifting Productivity,
a new report from GS1 New Zealand
on how such a digital database could support the industry and how it could be established.
The report, funded by BRANZ from the Building Research Levy, draws on analysis commissioned from the NZ Institute of Economic Research on international examples of productivity gain from using digital data systems, along with GS1’s expertise in data standards and related technologies.
The report states improved accuracy of information, once standardised and
digitalised, is a key source of productivity gain thanks to reduced paperwork, information search time and costs.
Furthermore, the online availability of information – especially authoritative product assurance information to determine if products are fit for purpose – can increase confidence in product selection and expedite the building consent process.
The report notes the NZ building and construction industry’s record of low productivity growth – annual 0.9% per annum for the past 25 years – is less than 30% of that seen in the ICT sector, and less than half of that in agriculture.
However, establishing such a “digital infostructure”, including a product information database with information used in numerous business decisions, is one means of starting to tackle the problem.
www.gs1nz.org
12 NZHJ | DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz