Tauranga port farewells chief

By PAM GRAHAM

Port of Tauranga paid tribute to the leadership of chairman Fraser McKenzie as a three-decade association with the port ended on his retirement yesterday.

It was an emotional meeting for McKenzie whose family and generations of those involved with the port were in attendance to see him receive a standing ovation.

Handing over to John Parker, McKenzie said $1 invested in Port of Tauranga when it listed on the stock exchange in 1992 had returned $3085 in cash and was now worth $9625.

In the 30 years since McKenzie first sat down next to Jon Mayson at a Bay of Plenty Harbour Board meeting, ports have been deregulated, freight containerised and now Australian company Toll Holdings is shaking up the transport industry.

The port, which owed its early growth to log exports from the centre of the North Island, is now the second-biggest container handler in the country, and its inland hub in South Auckland is the third-biggest.

What neither Mayson, now chief executive, nor McKenzie, chairman for the past 14 years, could say was whether imminent decisions about a new freight hub in Hamilton for dairy giant Fonterra will propel Tauranga ahead of Auckland.

Tauranga is also putting its log-handling business, Owens, into a joint venture with Toll Logistics. Toll Owens will service every port in New Zealand. McKenzie views such changes as a new era.

McKenzie, a dairy farmer, divides Tauranga's history into three stages: 1800 to 1954, 1954 to 1989 and 1989 to 2001. The last featured the $120 million development of container- handling facilities at Sulphur Pt and the move to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation after a 35-day labour dispute in 1989.

"It's a different company from the one I joined in 1974. Of course, in so many ways it is a different world."

He recalled that a government commission of inquiry once determined that a port would be built at Mt Maunganui and not Whakatane, that the port's biggest unit was once its engineering division, and that investment in wharves was endless before ships could be handled as soon as they arrived.

McKenzie paid tribute to his wife, Dorothy, and his family and to businessmen Ray Boord, Jack Ingram, Bob Owens, Jim Syme and Keith Calder.

In 1974, the harbour board's revenue was $3.27 million. By this year the port company's total revenue was $151 million and profit $33 million. Mayson said the port made a profit of $8.15 million in the three months to September 30, up 5.1 per cent on last year.

He said the year had been most challenging because log exports were down by 1 million tonnes, though this was offset by higher meat, kiwifruit and dairy exports and a contract to handle imported coal.

"The outlook for forestry exports is unclear and not promising. So, too, are the issues surrounding the ownership of some of central North Island forestry estate."

The year had shown the benefit of lower business risk and a spread of revenue, said Mayson.

The meeting re-elected directors (as well as increasing their fees) and auditors and approved a new constitution.

Recent milestones


* 1992 Sulphur Pt container terminal opens.

* 1993 First fully containerised ship arrives.

* 1998 Buys Navis container-tracking system.

* 1999 Metroport established in Auckland and ANZDL shipping line commits to it.

* 2001 Metroport runs 24 hours a day.

* 2001 New dairy export facility opens.

* 2002 Northport venture opens new deepwater port.

* 2003 Port signs 15-year coal-handling contract with Genesis Energy and commits to $25 million new facility.

* 2004 Metroport is upgraded and expanded.