Gisborne sawmill to reopen
The mothballed Prime Sawmill in Gisborne has been sold to New Zealand company Far East Sawmills for an undisclosed sum and will be reopened.
Gisborne’s Eastland Community Trust chairman, Michael Muir, said the sale guaranteed the creation of 50 to 60 jobs by April this year at the mill.
Nearby JNL has proposed cutting 97 wood-processing workers at its sawmill as part of a proposed restructuring.
The reopening of the former Prime Sawmill would provide job opportunities for some of those who may lose their jobs at the JNL mill.
Far East Sawmills is a fully integrated forest products business and a subsidiary of building materials manufacturer and developer Spectrum.
Far East Sawmills owns the Tregoweth Sawmill in Te Kuiti, forests in Northland, a forestry harvest company and a transport fleet.
The company intends to produce about 60,000 square metres of timber a year, and will probably invest a further $9 million in the sawmill.
Managing director Wade Glass said the company would eventually employ up to 100 staff.
Eastland Community Trust spokeswoman Kerry Donovan said this would happen by about April 2020.
Far East Sawmills will be replicating the product mix from its mill in Te Kuiti, targeting high-value appearance-grade lumber for export to European and the United States markets.
While the sawmill itself is sold, Eastland Community Trust still retains ownership of the 22-hectare site.
Activate Tairāwhiti, the economic development arm of Gisborne’s Eastland Community Trust, said the sale price of the mill was ‘‘commercially sensitive’’.
First Union president Robert Reid, who is representing JNL workers, said: ‘‘Even if some of these new initiatives give 50 or 60 new jobs, that’s great but that’s still minus 40.’’
He said cuts would hurt the wider economy and the workers, as well as the the Gisborne community.
Yesterday was the last day of consultation between JNL and its workers about the proposed restructure.
First Union’s submission asked JNL to talk to the Government before making a final decision on the job cuts.
The forestry and logging sector is worth an estimated $1.4 billion to the economy, more than either the sheep meat or beef sectors.