December 2022 - Bay of Plenty Business News

34 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS December 2022
WINSTONE WALLBOARDS UPDATE
Community approach key
Winstone Wallboards, makers of GIB ® plasterboard will open their
new state-of-the-art manufacturing and distribution centre in
Tauriko in mid-2023. Project Lead Stewart Vaughan talks about the
project and what it means for the region.
The project team are mere months away
from completing Australasia’s largest
plasterboard manufacturing and distribution
facility right here in Tauranga, a development
that’s been several years in the making
and on a scale never seen in New Zealand
before.
STEWART VAUGHAN
Project Lead
With over 67,000sqm of buildings, which
is more than seven rugby fields, spread across
12.8 hectares of land – the new facility will
have 50% more capacity than our current Auckland
site with room for further expansion.
It’s much more than purely putting up bricks
and mortar though, one of the most gratifying
parts of leading the project is seeing the benefits
the new facility will bring to the region;
new job opportunities, partnerships with local
organisations as well as supporting career
development for so many talented, enthusiastic,
and hard-working people we’ve met from the
Bay of Plenty.
We’re still recruiting for roles now, from
electricians through to team leaders, so we
encourage anyone interested in joining Winstone
Wallboards to put their name forward,
even if they don’t have the qualifications
needed. The team are big on supporting people
to get where they want to be.
There have been a few challenges along the
way; the initial proposed site spanned across
two district councils which would have posed
a number of consenting complexities. Fortunately,
the developer of Tauriko Business Park
was able to reconfigure parts of their subdivision
including shifting a roundabout, a road
closer and relocating the Tauranga gas line to
accommodate the entire Winstone Wallboards
site within the Tauranga City Council boundary.
I must pay tribute to Bryce Donne from
Element IMF, Nigel Tutt from Priority One, the
Tauranga City Council and the Bay of Plenty
Regional Council who have all been instrumental
in supporting us with our project.
A big focus of the project has been setting up
our manufacturing and distribution to have the
capacity to support us for many years to come,
as well as having sustainability integrated
throughout the buildings. One example is the
installation of a waste recycling facility that
enables GIB ® plasterboard to include recycled
gypsum.
One part of the project I’m particularly proud
of has been developing community partnerships
and relationships, working alongside councils,
Iwi and hapū we’ve really been able to see the
impact this project will have on the region.
Early on, we began engagement with mana
whenua which has been a really rewarding
experience and at our first meeting we stood
together with mana whenua representatives on
a hill right in the middle of where the site is now
and expressed our genuine desire to come into
Winstone Wallboards facility at Tauriko Business Estate.
the community and have a positive impact, not
just in terms of recruitment but wider support
as well.
Since then, the team has worked hand-inhand
with hapū. A dawn blessing with representatives
from Ngai Tamarawaho and Ngati
Hangarau took place early in the development
and nearby Taumata School is Kaitiaki (guardian)
of the soil.
We’re continuing to find more opportunities
to work with the community, to maximise
employment opportunities for local iwi.
We’ve built relationships around trust and
followed through with the things we said we’d
do, taking community feedback seriously,
respecting the environment and working hard
to minimise our environmental footprint.
All the passionate people we’ve worked
with have come to understand that we’re more
than just a manufacturing and distribution business
– we’re looking forward to having a positive
impact in this community.