Beazley Homes Wins $6m Aust. Contract

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 16

Beazley Homes Wins $6m Aust. Contract

(N.Z. Press Allocation—CopvrighO

SYDNEY, May 10. The New Zealand-based Beazley homes group has beaten nine Australian builders to win a Hamersley Holdings, Ltd, housing contract worth more than s6m, the Australian “Financial Review” reported. -

Clay bricks and timber from New Zealand are to be used in supplying the order. It is the biggest housing contract Hamersley has let and completes its current Dampier and Mount Tom Price housing programme.

In the past, A. V. Jennings Industries, Ltd, has dominated the supply 'of Hamersley housing requirements, providing 350 homes in the last three years. Besides Jennings, the only other supplier of Hamersley homes has been the W. A. Jaxon-Watson joint venture group. The financial review continued: —In winning the contract Beazley had to overcome these obstacles: —

Fierce price competition from Western Australia and interstate building companies.

Advantages gained by Jennings and to a lesser extent Jaxon-Watson in having previous experience with Hamersley. Project planning from the isolation of New Zealand. Relatively little building experience in Australia. Declining Costs The cost of building houses in the Tom Price and Dampier iron ore regions is declining because of the improvement in communications, roads and availability of sup-

plies; considered recognition of this may have helped Beasley clinch the order. Beasley has already .loaded bricks and timber for the project on the chartered steamer I. G. Nichelson and ft is understood the bricks are providing a useful ballast advantage. The newspaper said that, in spite of Beazley’s use of New Zealand bricks and timber, other materials and labour to be used on the job will mostly come from the local Western Australian market. Sensitive Locality (Western Australians are often sensitive about nonlocal firms supplying factors of production to mining and other development, the "Financial Review" said). Beazley is controlled by Mr Barry A. Beazley, 38, and provides about eight per cent of New Zealand’s new home output (in Auckland the figure is nearer 10 per cent). Turnover is some 1200 units by the end of September and the remainder by March next year.