Cyclone in new group

Press, 9 February 1989, Page 21

Cyclone in new group

Cyclone Industries and another Christchurch firm, employing between them 125 people, are part of the new Fletcher Challenge company, Wiremakers, Ltd. The other firm is the Christchurch plant of Consolidated Metal Industries, which makes nails, the Ernest Hayes range of products and aluminium goods. It has a staff of 60 and Cyclone has a staff of 60. Cyclone Industries was listed on the Stock Exchange until taken over by Brierley Investments in 1980. Brierley made it part of its then subsidiary, Consolidated Metal Industries, which Fletcher Challenge took over last year.

The newly formed Wiremakers encompasses the wire interests of Fletcher’s. It includes New Zealand Wire, which makes steel wire and SPAN products; fencing products from Cyclone and Ernest Hayes (of Otago and Southland); and PKR Fencing, whose products include pool and security fencing, electric fences, and garden mesh and netting. The group’s factories in Christchurch will continue to operate, and might increase their output, Wiremakers said in a statement. Mr Brian Hogan, the general manager of Wiremakers, said Cyclone was in strong shape with exports and a

strong joint venture exporting from Britain to third countries. Wiremakers will continue export efforts, especially to Australia. The new company is partly a response to falling tariff protection, which Mr Hogan says is putting the New Zealand wire industry under intense pressure. To survive, the New Zealand industry must produce 24 hours a day using the best possible equipment, he adds. Extensions and improvements have already been made to the GKN plant in Otahuhu, opposite Pacific Steel, the main source of the raw material.