Cottonsoft defends 'NZ-made' label

By PAM GRAHAM

Cottonsoft, a company owned by four Dunedin investors and staff, will go head to head with corporate giant Carter Holt Harvey in an Auckland courtroom next week.

Cottonsoft stands accused of falsely advertising its toilet paper as New Zealand-made.

The accuser is Carter Holt Harvey, majority owned by the world's largest paper company, International Paper, and maker of Sorbent and Purex toilet paper.

Cottonsoft imports jumbo half- tonne rolls of tissue, mostly from Indonesia, and perforates, embosses, prints, cuts and packages it into Cottonsoft and Kiwisoft toilet paper.

Carter Holt is seeking an injunction to stop the product being marketed as New Zealand made and is seeking damages.

In the toilet paper world, the Sorbent brand is number one and competes with Kimberley-Clark's Kleenex at the top end of the market.

Purex slugs it out with Cottonsoft mid-market and Kiwisoft at the bottom end.

Cottonsoft, the company, claims a 20 per cent overall market share, up from 10 per cent a year ago.

It also makes Tuffy paper towels, which compete with Carter Holt's Handee Towels.

Cottonsoft managing director Steve Silvey said that if his company lost the case it would probably have to take Kiwisoft off the market.


Carter Holt is trying to sell its tissue business and has said it hopes to complete the deal in the first quarter.

The book value is around $670 million and options include a share sale to the public and a trade sale.

In a marketplace dominated by international brands, the Cottonsoft company decided to make its branding unabashedly local.

Kiwisoft has about 7.8 per cent of the toilet-tissue market in supermarkets, Cottonsoft said.

It sales have leaped 77 per cent in the past year.