NZ firm turns on first DVD presses

By PETER GRIFFIN

It's been churning out music and software CDs in its Auckland plant for the past few years, but an investment of millions of dollars has made Stebbing Recording Centre the country's first and only DVD manufacturing plant.

The "Alphaline 3" now hums away on the second floor of Stebbing's Herne Bay pressing plant. The Swedish machinery allows Stebbing to produce 40,000 DVDs a day - one every 1.75 seconds.

General manager Vaughan Stebbing said the company, founded by his father, Eldred, in 1946, had been biding its time until DVD hit critical mass. DVD had replaced videotape as the standard format for movies and DVD players had dropped sharply in price, increasing demand for DVD titles.

In much the same way as Stebbing presses CDs for independent music artists and the local arms of the big recording labels, it will press locally made movies to DVD as well as foreign titles hitting the market.

Corporate movies and tourism features add to the production runs - typically up to 5000 DVDs.

Manufacturing locally, Stebbing can be responsive to demand.

"We're competitive on pricing, but we're not necessarily the cheapest. We can turn the order around quicker and keep our customers' stock levels right," said Stebbing.

The company's DVDs include a version of the Kiwi music compilation album series Nature's Best. A 60-track music DVD will be produced for Christmas.

But most of Stebbing's DVD pressing work is likely to be for international clients.

Australia accounts for 80 per cent of its digital production, and, because of its market volume, is attractive.

Australians buy 50 million DVDs each year. New Zealanders buy five million.

Stebbing, who has spent about $20 million getting the CD and DVD pressing facilities up and running, said he was not worried about being undercut by Asian manufacturers.

They had to buy the same technology and would not make big labour savings - only a handful of people were needed to run the machinery.

Rival Software Images has a CD plant but presses DVDs in Australia.