Waipa weighing up efficiencies to decide best focus

By PAM GRAHAM

Waipa sawmill's new owner is weighing up efficiencies against flexibility in deciding what markets to go after.

What Waipa does affects Rotorua, where the mill is a big employer, and also other sawmills because of its size.

Until last September, Waipa was run as a utility mill by Fletcher Challenge Forests.

"We want the mill to be market driven, not production driven," said new owner Phil Verry.

We're asking where do we want to be in the market.

"It will be mid- to late-February before we get a clear fix on what is our preferred log diet and therefore product mix."

Mills that produced one or two products were more efficient but mills with more markets had flexibility and that would be the trade-off.

The mill had frequently changed its output mix and had recently cut wood for structural and industrial uses, about half of which was for export, mostly to Australia.

The mill is about the same size as Fletcher's Kawerau and Taupo mills and it has a log supply agreement with the old Central North Island Forest Partnership estate.