FLETCHER HOLDINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26170, 5 June 1946, Page 4

FLETCHER HOLDINGS

A SATISFACTORY YEAR EXPANSION OF DUNEDIN INTERESTS (Special.) AUCKLAND, June 4. Satisfaction with the trading results last year under the difficult conditions ruling was expressed by Sir James Fletcher, chairman of directors of Fletcher Holdings. Ltd., at the annual meeting to-day. The development of the company’s sawmilling activities during the past year, Sir James said, had provided a valuable addition to the otherwise inadequate supply of timber and peeler logs. Further development would be necessary before the company’s essential supplies could be obtained. The fire which had occurred at the linseed oil mill in Dunedin in September had destroyed the existing mill at a time when the' construction of the company’s new mill and the installation of plant was already in hand,Sir James said, but a portion of the new plant was also destroyed. The directors had decided to concentrate on the completion of the expelling mill, and no effort was being spared in the pursuit of this policy. In spite of serious difficulties, the first run of the new expellers was taken in January, 1946. The test runs had proved successful, and the mill was, at the present time, producing oil on a satisfactory basis. With regard to the growing of the company’s linseed requirements in New Zealand, an area of 12,000 acres in linseed was contracted for in the 1945 season, and it was anticipated that contracts would be let for the 1946 season covering an area of between 25,000 and 35.000 acres. Since the close of the financial year. Sir James said, another subsidiary company, the Reinforcing and Structural Steel Company, Ltd., had been incorporated. The seat of that company’s operations would be Dunedin, and it had been incorporated for the purpose of taking over as a separate unit the steel yard which up to the present had been operated in Dunedin as a branch of the Fletcher Construction Company, Ltd. The volume of work in hand at present in Dunedin and in immediate prospect augured well for its success.