SouthStar sets up Rotorua assembly plant
SOUTHSTAR HAS SET UP AN ASSEMBLY PLANT IN ROTORUA IN response to the growing demand for its processing, harvesting and felling heads.
The company has seen a “huge increase” in sales in 2017 and the new assembly facility in View Road, Rotorua will ensure faster delivery times for customers in New Zealand and other markets in the Southern Hemisphere, which will also be supplied from here.
Until now all components were designed and manufactured in New Zealand before being shipped to the SouthStar head office in Canada, where the heads were assembled and tested before being sent back to customers in this country and other markets around the world.
SouthStar’s Jeremy Disher says: “With a 230% increase in New Zealand sales over the past 12 months, the demand was there to set up an assembly plant in New Zealand.
“Rotorua was the obvious choice with its close proximity to large central North Island forests and skilled engineering industry, which is ideal for base machine fit-ups. This was the final step to making a 100% designed and manufacture New Zealand product and something we are proud to stand behind.”
The chassis for all SouthStar heads are manufactured and welded at Page Macrae Engineering in Mount Manunganui, with the precision engineering carried out just down the road by Robert Page Engineering in Tauranga.
Mr Disher says they are trusted members of the SouthStar team and the relationship has been the key to making high quality performance products.
“Page Macrae has over 20 years’ experience with high tensile steel fabrication work specific to the forestry industry,” he says.
“This experience is invaluable to our products’ durability in harsh conditions, such as forestry and the varying climatic conditions around the world. With temperatures getting as low as minus-20 degrees Centigrade, steel becomes very brittle and this is when your design and workmanship is really tested.
“It’s the small things that Page Macrae do so well, such as running a weld out and dressing its tail, or removing cutting ripples and radiusing an edge in certain high stress areas. I guess with their experience they understand the product application and get to know the areas of importance where care must be taken and this experience is crucial.”
The same engineering care and attention to detail has been