Forestry research bodies to merge

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

Government-owned forest research institutes on both sides of the Tasman are to merge almost half of their operations into a joint-venture big enough to pitch to multinationals.

The new unit, which is yet to be named, will take over about a third of Rotorua-based Forest Research's 340 staff and half of the 180 staff of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

A worldwide search has been launched for a chief executive, who will have the major say on the head office location.

Both organisations said no redundancies were planned, but staff could be moved between the two countries.

The new unit will start with a turnover of $30 million a year and is intended to be big enough to attract research contracts from the big multinational companies which now dominate the forestry industry.

The assistant chief of the CSIRO division, Rick Ede, said his organisation identified the need for a partner two and a half years ago and the Rotorua institute was always "the logical choice".

"On the world scene, the industry is in the midst of merging, acquiring and consolidating," he said.

"The large forest industry companies are getting larger. Our capacity was getting smaller compared with that in the larger companies.

"It came back to the fact that to grow to meet their needs, because they can purchase research all around the world, we needed to have an attractive scientific capacity to offer them.

"The whole plan is that by combining the companies, we can get to a scale and depth which is comparable with what is being done offshore."

New Zealand Forest Research chief executive Bryce Heard said the combined operation had "a lot of complementary capabilities and compatible skill sets".

The two organisations are already equal partners in the Wood Quality Initiative, a joint-venture set up last year in which industry and the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology each chip in $1 million a year.

Heard said the new operation would be an unincorporated joint-venture using assets owned by the two bodies.

The venture will take over Forest Research staff in tree improvement, primary processing, pulp and paper making and the Wood Quality Initiative, and CSIRO staff in forestry and forest industries.