COMMERCIAL Fletcher to expand board production

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32965, 11 July 1972, Page 18

COMMERCIAL Fletcher to expand board production

CVetv Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 10. A multi-million dollar expansion programme for its Taupo particle board plant has been announced by the Fletcher Timber Company Ltd a subsidiary of Fletcher Holdings, Ltd.

I The present plant cost s3m. iThe first stage of expansion, Ito be completed by the latter part of next year will cost several million dollars and will double the present production capacity of the plant. Further developments within the next two years will increase output again to more than three times the present level. A company statement today said that the present plant, completed three years ago and since expanded, has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week virtually since it was completed. “The demand for particle board has been quite extraordinary,” said Mr A. B. Downey, managing director of the Fletcher Timber Company.

i “When we designed the present Taupo factory, we j thought there would ' be a reasonable surplus for export. Instead we found that it was difficult to keep up with domestic demands. “Apart from sheer output, we also intend to extend the present range of our products,” said Mr Downey. “The expanded Taupo complex will be producing particle board of new types, sizes and thicknesses.” Thinnings and logging waste from the nearby

42,000-acre Tauhara forest are used in the manufacture of particle board at the Taupo plant. I The introduction of new [processes in the expansion programme should enable the greater use of wood waste from the adjoining Fletcher sawmill. Planting has been expanded to more than 4000 acres a year in the Fletcher-owned Tauhara forest to cope with the expanded demand for the new plant.