Cast your mind back to the 1920s, when art deco style was in full swing, all New Zealand homes being built at that time would have used wallboard imported from North America.  

An idea sparked in 1927 by a small Auckland company called Builders Composite Materials, who believed that quality wallboard could be made in New Zealand, established a joint venture with building materials manufacturer Winstone Ltd, called New Zealand Wallboards Ltd. The new venture rolled up its sleeves and got to work, producing New Zealand’s first plasterboard. 

Despite heavy competition from abroad, in its first year of production in 1927, the company produced 1 million square feet of board, and by 1930 it had increased production to 5 million square feet and the manufacturing plant was at full capacity.

The following year in 1931, the same year as one of New Zealand’s largest earthquakes in living memory hit Napier, a new Auckland plant was opened, with new automated systems replacing handmade methods, and upgrading the product to use pumice instead of sawdust.  

The company also replaced open edges with selvedge-edge board. It was here, the name of the product was changed to “Gibraltar Board”, named after the steadfast Rock of Gibraltar.  It’s likely that some of the homes and buildings being rebuilt in Napier were now using New Zealand manufactured plasterboard.

This new, more automated factory could not have been more fortuitously timed, as New Zealand entered its second world war and New Zealand needed far more home-grown production capability. Over the following years, the Auckland factory would continue to produce plasterboard at pace, with a Lower Hutt and Christchurch factory built to support production in 1946 and 1961.

In 1971, alongside New Zealand’s population tipping nearly 2.9 million, Winstone Wallboards opened a new, larger plant in Penrose where it has remained to this day, with the company changing its name to Winstone Wallboards at the same time.

A farewell to Winstone Wallboards Penrose manufacturing facility

The organisation has a proud history with its Penrose manufacturing facility, with many staff having worked there for more than 10 years, and even some who have been there since its early days.

In fact, when the manufacturing and distribution facility in Tauranga opens later this year, more than a third of the team will be made up of veteran Winstone Wallboards employees relocating from Auckland. From engineers, electricians and maintenance operators, to managers, production operators, and distribution team leaders - their combined knowledge and depth of experience will ensure a smooth and seamless transition.

As the organisation begins to say farewell to its Penrose facility, the plant will be decommissioned later this year as manufacturing transitions to Tauranga, the team also proudly remember the legacy created from that small idea sparked in 1927, paving the way for the next hundred years of creating plasterboard for Kiwi homes.