STATE OF THE INDUSTRY Reports from Branch Presidents February 2021
AUCKLAND / NORTHLAND We start the year as we ended 2020; full books and under pressure. Although a few companies were slower to get started with clients still making the most of the great summer weather, but now up to full capacity. The common feel is that 2021 will continue to be a year effected by Covid 19. International travel and tourism on hold, resulting with the investment back into the domestic construction. Also we are faced with delays in imported materials and componentry, with countries still being closed down with outbreaks recurring. The upturn in domestic construction has put huge demand on our timber supplies, in particular Pine. Pine being widely used in construction, along with high level of export log, our suppliers struggling to get feed stock. The impact of interrupted supply of materials on our members businesses is concerning with jobs not been completed on time and alternative products needing to be sourced which have not been budgeted for. Members are now starting to talk about the effects on their businesses, as the Government has introduced a Bill to change the entitlement of sick leave; doubling from 5 to 10 days. To add to this is the addition of another public holiday; Matariki first one set down for 24 June 2022. Both combined, potentially in the worst case, businesses will lose a week’s production from each employee, resulting in charge out rates having to increase. With a spate of price increases in materials and the pending increase in overheads, members are concerned about the increase in cost of timber joinery in the market. The Auckland’s annual Fishing trip is set down for mid-February, which our members are all looking forward to. This year venturing to the Hauraki Gulf but are currently at risk due to the latest Covid-19 outbreak. - Rob Pickup CANTERBURY After a crazy busy time leading up to Christmas our members have also had a very busy start to
the new year. I hope you all had a well earned Christmas break and enjoyed the lovely warm weather ready for a busier than normal year ahead. With confidence in the industry strong, qualified staff are becoming hard to find. Lots of our members are taking on apprentices with the governments grants available. I am pleased to see apprenticeships are now a pathway for our young people. With the short supply and long shipping times of materials, we now need to be more organised in planning jobs. This also requires clients to finalize plans, colours and hardware earlier or risk long delays. In Canterbury we are getting good numbers attending our meetings at Bum’s great new showroom/warehouse in Christchurch. Our meetings are a great place to have a beer, a meal and discuss all the happenings in the joinery world. We are holding our inaugural Canterbury Master Joiner Awards in late February. We are looking forward to showcasing our local Master Joiners amazing work. In order to raise the profile of the MJ brand and Master Joiners we have been advertising in Metropol magazine. We want the public to recognise MJ logo. Our aim is to get potential clients to use a Master Joiner for all their Joinery needs. With conference approaching we are all looking forward to catching up with fellow members from throughout the country. Conference has a bit of a different look this year. With some great speakers, breakout sessions and the Annual Excellence Awards. - Nathan Busch CENTRAL The Central Region is definitely still very much under the pump. From what we have heard from members and also nonmembers, everyone is solidly booked well into the middle of the year. Residential new builds are keeping a lot of people busy. The rest are being kept busy with the renovation market which has just taken off after the first Covid lockdown. People who were planning overseas travel, are now instead spending their
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money on renovating their homes. The feedback is that people are getting multiple enquires a week for quotes and designs on kitchens etc. - Andrew Reilly NELSON MARLBOROUGH Part way through 2020 we as a region envisaged our economy being hit hard and about to enter a significant recession. But the scenario is somewhat different. All of our members have seen incredible customer demand, significant pressures on supply and retaining staff has become front of mind. Our members are tremendously busy with full order books until mid year and have established reliable supply arrangements. We are blessed as a region to have a number of suppliers who have been superb support partners in fulfilling supply demand requirements. House builds are up, consents are up, internal migration is still very positive towards our region. We as a branch continued a focus on professional development and training over the last year. This years focus will be Personal Well-being for our members and our members staff. We believe the effects of Covid has mediated people’s perspective on what is important, so staff need to be approached differently. The traumas of last April and May also indicated that education around well-being support and resilience management is a priority. We feel in a very good position to face 2021 and whatever that may bring but we need to develop tools to protect our future. In line with that we again celebrated our end of year ‘graduates’ alongside ARA, BCITO and NMIT. We took the opportunity to celebrate and award those who completed the PreTrade programme and the high performing apprentices. Another great event and another example of celebrating achievement and focusing on the positives. We have our own awards locked in for early March and have a high interest in attending the MJ conference this year. Even though we are all very busy, we see the benefits of learning and
also believe celebration of our industry is important. Late last year saw an initiative with a local establishment midway between our two regions Marlborough and Nelson, the Rai Tavern. Suppliers and Joiners worked together to help the renovation of the old pub. Meaning that moving forward we will have a venue halfway between the regions, that is master joiner friendly and perfect for our joint meetings. Every day is a good day. There is something to learn, care and celebrate. - Myles Sellers OTAGO SOUTHLAND The Otago-Southland region enjoyed a strong finish to 2020, and this has continued on to a good start in 2021. Local joiners are reporting a good outlook on workloads and confirmed jobs into 2021. There appears strong demand in most segments. Labour and Labour supply remains steady. Apprentice training is also looking good for the future with strong numbers nationally and locally. Supply chain pressure remains as the most significant of the short-term risk. Global supply chains are still recovering from the COVID interruptions and this has persisted as challenges to Sea and Air Transport.For the joiners, we have a great pipeline of events in 2021. Our National Conference in March 2021 is the first face-to-face since the #1 most-awesome conference ever in Invercargill, June 2019. Locally, we have scheduled multiple events and meetings all over the Otago and Southland region: Dinners, Activities, Site-Visits. Employees, staff, and all local and regional associate members are welcome. I look forward to catching up with you all soon. - Reuben Bogue TARANAKI With hot summer weather and long sunny days, most of our member have started the year with good work loads, and most have good forward work loads. Most members have reported heavy work loads leading up to Christmas time. A shortage of some materials has been,