Restructuring At Nelson Pine Industries

Nelson Pine Industries Ltd  today announced a restructuring of its production operations in response to difficult market conditions resulting from the worldwide financial crisis.

Managing Director, Murray Sturgeon, said the company will have excess capacity if it continues to operate the whole plant on a 24 hour continuous basis, and is restructuring its operations to undertake as much work as possible during Monday to Friday daytime hours.
 
The company regrets that this change will result in approximately 60 staff positions becoming surplus to production requirements.

The situation was announced to company staff today.  Nelson Pine will now enter a period of consultation with staff and unions to explore alternatives before affected staff are notified and redundancy notices are issued. Mr Sturgeon said the company cared deeply about its people and would provide all assistance possible to affected staff.

“Today is a black day in the history of the company, but we have every expectation market conditions will recover as soon as world financial markets improve, and the company will continue the growth path that has led to it being one of the largest engineered wood products producers in the world,” he said.

“The company is in a sound financial position and will soon be commissioning a major capital investment in new finishing plant.  It is unfortunate that this coincides with the largest market downturn the company has experienced in recent years.  By trimming operations now Nelson Pine will be in a better position to respond when the inevitable recovery occurs.”

Nelson Pine Industries Limited is the South Island’s largest forestry processor with the capacity to process 40% of the Nelson-Marlborough pine resource into Medium Density Fibreboard and Laminated Veneer Lumber. Currently 265 people are employed at the Richmond site.

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Gordon Campbell: On John Key’s Agenda For The Nation

There seemed to be three main components to John Key’s speech :

a) tax cuts largely paid for by a hike in GST
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c) giving firms easier access to the r&d from Crown Research Institutes, so that business can continue to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the research that keeps them competitive.

After all, corporate welfare is always such a blessed thing – its only social welfare that corrodes enterprise and ambition. More>>