MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 18-8-14
Huge support behing Thermakraft's rebuild

Thermakraft suffered a fire in their East Tamaki Bitumen plant in early July, which caused a temporary stoppage in some areas of production.

They are now moving full steam ahead to meet industry demand for its products.

CEO David Williams says the company is totally committed to resuming full production – and building the business bigger and better than ever.

“Our Board have committed the millions of dollars required to getting the business back to full production as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the insurance company to finalise the claim,” he says.

“We’re pleased to report all staff have been retained on full pay, and are continuing to work a 40-hour week. They will be back in their usual roles very soon – but in the meantime, it’s all hands on deck with the clean-up.”

David Williams says the burnt out portion of factory is being completely rebuilt, within a schedule of 13 weeks, and the company is also investing in replacement machinery.

The first priority is to resume production for Thermakraft’s highly-popular 215 black paper.

“We supply a reasonable percentage of this market, and we’ve had customers tell us they prefer to use 215 rather than alternatives. So we have commissioned the build of new machines as a priority – and we plan to have them running within the next two weeks.”

“We will be running two 10-hour shifts a day, which will allow us to quadruple our output.”

The company’s engineers are overseas to fast-track design and production of a new machine which will see them double their Covertek production. This is expected to be in operation by the end of November.

The company is also importing some of their Watergate product by airfreight, and absorbing that cost, in order to meet market demand.

David Williams says the fire began on one of the bitumen machines during a normal day shift. Although the Fire Service was immediately on the scene, the fire spread throughout the factory and caused extensive damage to machinery lines for Thermakraft’s top-selling bitumen wrap, laminated foils, Covertek, Thermakraft 397 and Mirror Black. (All other product lines were unaffected by the fire; including Thermakraft’s synthetic wall underlay, flashing tape products and DPMs). Fortunately, no-one was injured during the incident.

Thermakraft is locally owned has been operating in the New Zealand market since 1987. The manufacturing plant, R&D laboratory and distribution warehouse are all based on 1.2 hectares of land in the industrial region of East Tamaki, Auckland.

Thermakraft's comprehensive range of building products are available through all leading hardware stores, building supplies, timber merchants and roll formers throughout New Zealand. The company also exports products worldwide.

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