KEY POINTS:
Whiteware maker Fisher & Paykel Appliances has found buyers for two surplus parcels of land, including its 16.5ha Mosgiel manufacturing site.
The company announced yesterday it had reached a conditional agreement with dairy giant Fonterra for the Mosgiel site and facility, while a vacant 4.3ha site at the back of its East Tamaki base in Auckland has sold for an undisclosed sum.
The Auckland sale sees the company pocket a tax-free capital gain of approximately $6.3 million, which will be realised in the second half of its 2008/09 financial year.
Marketed by Colliers International, the land sale was part of Fisher & Paykel's global manufacturing strategy to shift most of its production to lower-cost countries.
Announced in April, the plan sees manufacturing operations in Mosgiel, Brisbane and California close, with the work shifted to a combination of existing sites in Thailand and Italy, and a new factory in Mexico.
The 430 jobs at the cooking and dishwashing production factory in Mosgiel would be phased out by March next year, with the company leaving the premises by the end of June.
But the company could still remain on site in a smaller way, with the lease of office space for its 90-strong research and development team.
All machinery, tools and associated plant will be removed and relocated to its overseas factories.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances has been at the site since 1978. The agreement with Fonterra is expected to be confirmed next month, along with plans for the site.
A Fonterra spokesman said the co-operative would not be revealing its plans for the site until the deal is settled.
PROPERTIES:
Mosgiel
* 16.5ha site located 20km southwest of Dunedin.
* Fisher & Paykel Appliances moved on to the original 10ha Mosgiel property when it bought the Shacklock stove manufacturing business in 1978, adding to it gradually over the years.
* The site houses a predominantly clear-span, 8m stud, temperature-controlled 21,736sq m factory and a 3515sq m office, along with various ancillary buildings.
East Tamaki
* Vacant 4ha of land at Kerwyn Ave behind Fisher & Paykel Appliances' East Tamaki base.
* Part of the original site Fisher & Paykel Appliances bought for its manufacturing base in the 1970s.
* The site has been kept for future expansion but a change in its manufacturing strategy meant it was no longer needed.
* Has a Manukau District Council Business 5 zoning, which allows moderate warehousing, distribution and manufacturing.
