Hi again everyone

As you can see from the video above, we’re making significant progress on the new Tauriko facility and we remain on track to be producing saleable plasterboard from here in May 2023. Since our update last month, we have successfully completed the mechanical construction phase of the dryer and the main roof.

The new facility will be integral to our future, not just in terms of what and how much we produce, but how we produce it - and I’m particularly excited about how it will help us lower the carbon footprint of our products. But before we get to this point, I want to assure you that our focus remains on levelling up plasterboard supply with demand, and working with merchants to provide greater certainty around delivery.

We are getting closer to a balancing of supply and demand. This is being helped by two key dynamics. Demand remains high, but not at the intensity it was earlier in the year. On the supply side, we continue to run both plants 24/7 and have invested in upgrades to lift production. This combined with importing plasterboard made for us, means we are despatching over 3.25 million sqm of plasterboard into the market each month.

While we are pleased to get feedback from around the country about how this is leading to improved reliability, we appreciate that there are still a number of exceptions to this position and that some customers are still waiting on orders. We are working hard to correct this and will continue to maximise production, and work with merchants using the allocation model, to get a fair distribution of product nationwide.

We know that demand tends to increase at this time of year. Our best advice to tradespeople remains to provide as much notice as possible to your local merchants about your specific plasterboard requirements, including when it's needed and site readiness. Doing this helps everyone and minimises delays for others. Looking a bit further ahead, we’ll continue to operate our Auckland plant 24/7 through the Christmas period to rebuild working stock levels so we can start 2023 in a far stronger position than we found ourselves in, heading in to 2022.

In this issue we have also included a short story on the work we’re doing in Tauriko to set up positive and sustainable community relationships and a look at how taking a systems approach is vital to creating sustainable, healthy homes. 

Thanks again for your continued support, patience and cooperation – I hope you find these updates useful. As ever, please feel free to get in touch with the team to discuss anything outlined above.

Kind regards

David Thomas

General Manager

Winstone Wallboards