Staffing an issue amid boom times
Niagara Sawmilling Company has employed 100 more staff in the past year and is expanding its plant as it moves to keep up with domestic and international demand for timber products.
Group sales and marketing manager Jamie Barton said the company was expanding and investing to keep up with a building boom not seen since the 1970s.
‘‘The bottom line is: the building sector across New Zealand is strong,’’ he said, adding that the company was also sending more products to Asia, Australia, the United States and Europe.
‘‘We’re trying to grow as fast as we can,’’ Barton said.
The Kennington-based business, just outside Invercargill, is one of many in Southland and Otago that have bounced back from the Covid-19 lockdown faster than anyone anticipated.
According to the Otago Southland Employers’ Association’s latest performance of manufacturing index (PMI), manufacturing businesses experienced growth in production levels, new orders and deliveries of raw materials.
The association recorded a PMI score of 66.1 in March – which is up from 54.8 in February and 46.4 in January.
It is also more than three times the April 2020 score of 20.8 when New Zealand was in lockdown.
Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said a PMI reading above 50 indicated that manufacturing was generally expanding, while a score below 50 showed a decline.
Food manufacturers were busy building stocks for Easter trading in March, she said, and the employers in the construction industry welcomed the extension of the apprenticeship boost initiative until August 2022 as they struggled to recruit to keep up with growth.
However, shipping disruptions because of Covid-19 remained a problem for many manufacturers, Nicholls said.
Niagara’s Barton agreed. The company was finding it challenging to arrange exports and its suppliers were struggling to import the chemicals needed for the primer the sawmill used, he said.
But while the company had anticipated an at least 20 per cent drop in revenue because of the national lockdown last year, sales had, surprisingly, lifted soon after the lockdown did.
‘‘Everyone is hungry for timber,’’ Barton said.
Around the world, people who could not travel were investing in their homes instead.
New Zealand’s Covid-free status and sound relationships with international trade partners has helped Kiwi companies take advantage of the demand.
‘‘As an industry, we’ve been able to supply where other countries have not,’’ he said.
Niagara is now extending its factory, adding extra shifts and spending ‘‘several million dollars’’ on more manufacturing machines.
The company’s biggest challenge was finding staff, Barton said.
It would need to fill at least 25 positions before Christmas, which covered a broad range – from engineers to truck drivers, machine operators, and general labourers.