P.D.L. moulding to move to Chch

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 8

P.D.L. moulding to move to Chch

By

PAT TAYLOR

in Greymouth P.D.L. Industries, Ltd, is to transfer its plastic blow moulding and screenprinting section from its Westport factory to Christchurch because of freight charges. The company’s chairman, Sir Robertson Stewart, told a development conference in Dunedin recently that it was costing more to run its Westport factory because of a lack of Government regional assistance.

The manager of the Westport factory, Mr Miles Jones, told "The Press” yesterday that the move to send the blow moulding and screen printing of the plastic bottles to Christchurch Was to take the goods closer to both market and

to supplier. It cost the company $6O a tonne extra in freight to take the raw material into Westport and another cost to return the finished product to Christchurch. The member of Parliament for the West Coast, Mr Kerry Burke, in a radio report yesterday said that that the company had received regional assistance, but Mr Jones said that the only regional concession received at present was for transport across Cook Strait.

The Westport goods still had to be transported to Christchurch before being railed to Picton and Wellington.

No staff would lose their jobs through the transfer of the two departments to Christchurch in

the interim, said Mr Jones. Seven staff members had been offered jobs in Christchurch in the decorating (screen-printing) section. If they did not accept, they would be absorbed in the meantime in the injection moulding and toy component sections, which were at present engaged in preparing for the Christmas trade. The future of some staff would be reviewed after the rush period was satisfied, but his company had decided that all sections had to be profitable. The Westport factory of P.D.L. employs at present a staff of 60 with an annual wage bill of $1 million, said Mr Jones. Any loss of staff could be met by the normal attrition, he said.