Andrew Reding will become chief executive and managing director of Fletcher Building. Photo / Supplied
Andrew Reding will become chief executive and managing director of Fletcher Building. Photo / Supplied
Fletcher Building has appointed Andrew Reding as its new chief executive and also named him in a newly created position as its managing director.
Reding worked at the business for 11 years and was described by acting chairwoman Barbara Chapman as an “industry veteran”.
He was chief executive of Fletcher’s building products division from 2001 to 2006 and before that, managing director of Fletcher Wood Panels from 1997 to 2001.
He has held roles with Graeme Hart’s Rank Group where he was president and CEO of the American-headquartered Evergreen Packaging.
Reding was also chief executive of Hart’s Carter Holt Harvey, which today’s announcement said had revenue of $2.3 billion.
Reding starts in his new role at Fletcher on September 30.
“My immediate priorities will be to understand and then optimise the operational performance across the businesses for the prevailing challenging market conditions, see that we are well positioned when those market conditions improve, and work towards closing out the well-known issues the company faces,” Reding said today.
“I will also be undertaking a strategic review, which I will announce to the market in the first half of next year. In discussions with the board I have observed a group of dedicated, competent and hard-working people, passionate about the business and seeking to effect a positive turnaround to drive shareholder value.
“My job will be to translate our shared vision into strong results. Fletcher Building is a company with enormous potential and opportunities staffed by excellent people, and I’m energised by the opportunity to lead them,” Reding said.
Fletcher acting CEO Nick Traber is returning to Switzerland.
Nick Traber has been acting Fletcher chief executive since Ross Taylor left to return to Australia.
Today’s announcement said Traber would be returning to Switzerland.
Reding is chairman of the NZ Shareholders Association which today congratulated him on his appointment.
Oliver Mander, association CEO said Reding had offered strong and capable board leadership. His skills and deep commercial capability will be sorely missed.
“At a personal level, I will miss Andrew’s holistic worldview, his incisive analysis and considered judgement. He has provided outstanding service and leadership,” Mander said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my 40 years in this industry, all that complexity,” he said after announcing the $120 million loss for the half-year to December 31, 2023, that included $165m in provisioning for the NZ International Convention Centre built by Fletcher Construction.
The Australian engineer who worked for giant Lend Lease for 20 years explained a series of surprises and unexpected events starting with the October 2019 fire, Covid-19, rising steel prices, removing cars covered in mould, replacing steel in-situ then dealing with subcontractor failures and replacement, all leading to rising costs.
“When the fire occurred on the convention centre, the first 18 months there was mould everywhere. Once we got through that, the steel remediation became apparent. We had to get in and remove the damaged steel.
“A lot of it was the fire protective paint had to be scraped off. The scope of how you did that became apparent. There’s no way sitting back in 2019 that you could see Covid coming. There was no methodology that existed on the mould, for example. We had to invent that and get it approved.
“How do you then get the rubbish out and look at the steel? How is the steel going to be remediated? Then you have another look at the forecasts and then we have Covid,” Taylor said in mid-February.
Fletcher will tomorrow announce its full-year result to June 30, 2024.
Shares have been trading near $3.52, down 29% annually.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
