N.Z. L. L. confident of turnabout

Press, 6 May 1981, Page 28

N.Z. L. L. confident of turnabout

The directors of New Zealand Light Leathers, Ltd, were reasonably confident that the company would be able to “turn around” in the coming year, said the chairman Mr E. J. Hazlett, at the annual meeting yesterday. N.Z.L.L. incurred a trading loss of $1,997,706 in the. year to December 31, but ‘Mr Hazlett said that what the company was doing now involved “no risks, and we are reasonably confident that, we will be able to turn the company around in the coming year.” i On the merger with Amalgamated Products, Ltd, Mr iazlett said that already benefits from the move were being seen. “we feel we have made tremendous strides to market leather in the time-since the merger.” Production was now being done on back-to-back ; deals, in association with Gomshall Tanneries, Ltd, which involved no risks to N.Z.L.L., he said. Like Amalgamated Products, Gomshall Tanneries is an associate company of

Union International Company, Ltd, part of the Vestey organisation. The wet blue pelts handled by the Hastings tannery, which was acquired from Amalgamated Products, for cash and shares, were all handled in back-to-back deals so that N.Z.L.L. was not subjected to the volatility of the market, and the wet blue contracts handled at Washdyke were done through brokers. The processing of hides at Hastings was also done under contract, and again there were no risks to N.Z.L.L., Mr Hazlett said. In Europe, the market had been hit by high interest rates, 22 per cent in Italy being one example that Mr Hazlett used. The only orders being carried out were those on back-to-back deals, and although N.Z.L.L.- was being cautious, the market was moving. In the Far East, N.Z.L.L. was now marketing through Gomshall, and once the group got it moving, then we should be doing well, Mr Hazlett said.