The new facility started operating last Friday, with about 150 people working on site per shift, plus office and management staff.
"Everybody's settling in and sleep would be very nice but it's a luxury we can't afford at the moment," Benes said.
"Good days ahead."
That is a sentiment shared by a lot of people involved in the industrial estate.
Real estate leaders in Tauranga say as soon as land becomes available in Tauriko, it is being snapped up and that demand is pushing up land prices there.
Bryce Donne, director of Element IMF Limited, which runs the estate, said his production team was "under the pump" and it looked like that would continue.
Both the financial year just completed and the one ahead set records for the estate in terms of total area sold, "with uptake running at approximately double the long-term average".
There had also been record land prices and yields achieved, and 2019 would be a record for area of completed titles produced.
Business confidence was high, Donne said.
A survey from Element IMF Limited showed in February 2017 there were 94 businesses based at Tauriko that employed 2008 people.
That data was no longer collected but both figures were likely to have risen in the past year.
There are only five hectares still available for sale in the current stage and Element IMF's planning team is working on designs and consents for the next stage release.
Donne said once the titles already contracted for sale were done, the estate would be about 60 per cent complete.
"There will be around 70 hectares still available, approximately seven years supply based on long term averages."
However, that supply period could be shorter if the rate of uptake experienced over the past two years continued, "and could be impacted further if available zoned land is needed for potential State Highway 29 upgrades".
Mark Irving, Priority One business partnership manager, said the ongoing industrial growth was helping provide further economic stability for the Western Bay of Plenty region.
It sent a clear message to businesses outside the region that the Western Bay was becoming an increasingly desirable place to do business.
And with that business growth, there would be an increase in staff and more education and training available, "which in turn further stimulates and strengthens the regional economy".
There had been a notable increase in the number of local companies expanding their operations and facilities in the past six months, Irving said.
"These companies are predominately relocating to Tauriko Business Estate from other industrial and commercial areas throughout the region and see the opportunity to acquire larger sites within a growing estate as beneficial to their business growth."
Ray White commercial and industrial specialist Philip Hunt said it had been an exceptionally busy year for people wishing to acquire industrial land at Tauriko.
"In fact there's very little land available, if any, that has titles."
There had also been "dramatic" increases in land prices, "which is directly attributed to the lift in demand".
The current land plan was all but sold out, Hunt said.
"These are blocks of land that earthworks are happening on at the moment and titles will not be available until very late this year."
Ray White had sold three blocks at Tauriko Business Estate, each more than three hectares in size, to offshore investors.
"We are also seeing a lot of design build clients coming over the hill from the Waikato, thanks to our port," Hunt said.
"It's exciting times out there."
Bayleys Tauranga branch manager Dickie Burman said people were snapping up land in Tauriko as soon as it was available.
"It's a major growth industrial area in town," Burman said.
"Business is confident about doing business out there and being out there, so that's all positive."
Rob Schoeser, commercial and industrial sales and leasing specialist at Colliers International in Tauranga, said buyers wanted low-maintenance, new buildings, built to the current building code, with a High IEP rating (earthquake testing).
He said Tauriko, which has good access to the city and upper North Island and quick transport links to the Port of Tauranga, is where the growth of Tauranga's business hub would be.
Colliers had made several large sales there, including one for more than $10m and another for more than $2m.
A Colliers Tauriko update newsletter last month said sales over $400 per sqm had become commonplace.
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stan Gregec said while Tauriko was growing quickly now, it had not always looked so certain.
"Many of us can remember that Tauriko was hit hard from the fallout from the GFC."
Gregec said the developers had done a lot of things right at Tauriko, "and now we can see the industrial, the retail and the residential elements all coming together nicely and creating a very attractive combination".
"The hard thing with any new development is getting it off the ground and then building critical mass. Despite the setback from the GFC, Tauriko and the associated developments are now well past any point of doubt about their future."
