Engineer Glen Simpson, fibre and yarn technician Emma Karaitiana and colour technician Niyah Garisau working at the Bremworth Napier plant. Photo / Warren Buckland
Engineer Glen Simpson, fibre and yarn technician Emma Karaitiana and colour technician Niyah Garisau working at the Bremworth Napier plant. Photo / Warren Buckland
Carpet and rug maker Bremworth wants to double its production in Napier but, like many industries, has been hampered by staff shortages.
About 160 people are employed by the company at its factory in Awatoto, which operates 24 hours, five days per week.
Bremworth chief executive Greg Smith said theywere considering moving to a 24-seven operation to meet high demand for their 100 per cent woollen products.
"What we make we are selling as fast as we can make it, it's going out the door," he said.
"We are wanting to double our production out of Napier over the next three years to meet demand.
"There is a possibility that we would move to 24/7 as we try to ramp up that production."
The Napier plant turns wool into yarn for rugs and carpet. Photo / Warren Buckland
However, he said finding extra staff to ramp up that production was proving difficult.
"Our production capacity at the Napier facility is a key part of our expansion programme but we are struggling to find the staff numbers we need," he said.
"We continue to recruit quite aggressively but it is a very tight market as everyone around New Zealand and around the world is finding."
He said there was noticeably fewer people applying for advertised jobs, which was a far cry from the past.
He did not say exactly how many jobs they were currently trying to fill in Napier but said they wanted to increase staff numbers by about 10 per cent in the next couple of years.
He said they were even considering bringing over workers from other regions such as Whanganui and Auckland.
Workers Emma Karaitiana, Glen Simpson and Niyah Garisau inside the Bremworth Napier plant. Photo / Warren Buckland
Bremworth operates plants in Napier and Whanganui - where they make the woollen yarn - and the company's headquarters is in Auckland, where they make the carpet and rugs.
Napier is the company's biggest facility for producing yarn.
Smith said the company formerly made wool and synthetic products but switched to woollen-only products in July last year, which resulted in a big jump in demand.
"The demand is coming from people who do not want to have synthetic fibres in their homes.
