Bremworth's Awatoto site, on the outskirts of Napier, 18 months on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Bremworth's Awatoto site, on the outskirts of Napier, 18 months on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Woollen carpet and rug maker Bremworth is planning to reinstate part of its yarn-making plant in Napier, but is yet to commit to a full rebuild.
The NZX-listed company employed about 150 staff at its Napier yarn manufacturing factory in Awatoto prior to Cyclone Gabrielle hitting, which severelyflooded the site in February 2023.
Most of the staff (about 118 workers) took voluntary redundancy in the months following the natural disaster.
In late 2023, the company reopened its dyehouse on site which has since become fully operational, and the company has now revealed plans to reinstate two machines involved in its yarn manufacturing.
“We are at the moment hand-picking parts of the factory to reinstate,” Bremworth CEO Greg Smith said.
“We are looking at reinstating two parts of the yarn-making capability, and that is all under way.”
The plan is to have those two machines ready to operate by Christmas including a continuous finishing line and a two-for-one twister machine, which help make yarn.
“The Napier plant made unique yarns that are hard to recreate anywhere in the world, and the staged reinstatement of machinery will enable Bremworth to scale production of these distinctive ranges, consistently producing high quality and unique yarns.”
However, Smith said they had not committed to a full rebuild of the plant at this stage, a decision which could only be made once they had settled their insurance claim, hopefully by the end of 2024.
Bremworth chief executive officer Greg Smith.
“At the moment we are still dealing with the insurance company as to what the end capacity [of the wider plant] will look like in Napier,” he said.
“We still have no settlement and that really is the key to the decision-making.”
Smith said it was too early to say how many staff would be brought on to operate the two machines, and 24 staff currently worked at the Napier site in various roles.
Smith said the cost of reinstating the two machines would be in the “single-digit millions”.
The company revealed in an update to shareholders on Thursday that it had received $62 million in insurance proceeds since the cyclone.
That 60-year-old site in Awatoto requires significant repair if it is to be fully rebuilt in future, and damaged walls covered by plastic sheets are still visible on the outside of the plant.
Prior to the cyclone, Napier was the company’s biggest facility for producing yarn, which was then sent to Auckland to be made into carpet and rugs. It also has a smaller yarn manufacturing plant in Whanganui.
Bremworth makes 100% woollen carpet and rugs, and enjoyed a surge in sales after committing to wool-only products in 2020, moving away from synthetics.
The company reported a $4.6m profit after tax in the year ending June 30 which was down on the year prior ($10.7m).
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
