People ‘already moving out of town’ as mills look to close operations

A Raetihi business owner says the town has been much quieter since the mill announced its plans to close. Photo / NZME

By Alexa Cook of RNZ

The proposed closure of two large North Island mills is already hurting the local economy in Raetihi, with people moving away and businesses feeling the pinch.

The forest products company Winstone Pulp International is looking at closing its entire operation due to high wholesale power prices, which will result in 230 jobs lost.

Raetihi’s Coach Cafe and Takeaways owner Angie Robson told RNZ it has been much quieter since the mill announced its plans to close last week.

“The first day they mentioned it we stood around for an hour and a half in the evening, and we’ve never ever stood around and done nothing.

“People are just being really careful, they’re not spending, some already moving out of town.”

Robson has run the cafe for nearly seven years and said if there was too much of a downturn they would have to walk away.

“Honestly the impact is huge. The amount of families who have both partners working at the mill, what are they going to do?”

Raewyn Sinclair’s partner works at the mill and she owns a sign-writing business.

“My new business, I’ve only been going for three years, it’s just doing good and we’re going to have to close up and maybe move to Australia to be honest,” she said.

“We’ve just about paid off the house but might have to try to sell it, we’re not going to get anything for it because no one is going to want to live here.”

The mill is the largest employer in the area – most of its 230 workers live locally in towns like Raetihi, Ohakune, Waiōuru and Taihape.

But Sinclair said if it closed many would be forced to move away in search of work, which would have a wide impact on all parts of the community.

“I think we’ll have one kid in our kohanga left if we all move, so that’s just saying what it is and that’s just one kohanga. There’s all the other kohanga, daycares, schools,” she said.

It was not just the jobs being axed, an entire economy of contractors and businesses relied on work from Winstone and on the people employed there to spend their wages locally.

Andy Entwisle owns a security business and has about 600 clients in the area. He worried about the ripple effect.

“In six months, 12 months’ time, the supportive businesses relying on income from services provided will drop away. People are moving away so infrastructure drops away. What happens to our health services? What happens to our grocery store if it’s not viable?” he said.

Even the property market was expected to take a hit.

“Instantly, as soon as someone said the mill is closing, the property values would have dropped by 15, 20, 30%,” Entwisle said.

Winstone Pulp International met with ministers on Monday and Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton was hopeful the Government would intervene.

“So I think you’ll find they’ll find a way clear to get a package together that suits not only this district but others as well,” he said.

- RNZ