Banking boss Sir Ralph Norris is being tipped by insiders to become the new chairman of New Zealand's biggest listed company.

The head of Fletcher Buildings' Winstone Wallboards is defending its dominant New Zealand plasterboard position, as the company awaits a Commerce Commission ruling.

This column is about two companies at opposite ends of the NZX. The first is Fletcher Building. The other is Renaissance Corporation.

Councils are being blamed for the high cost of building New Zealand houses, ahead of the role played by manufacturers.

Coping with monsoons, 40°C-plus heat and waiting weeks for internet or telephone connections are challenges of manufacturing in India described by a Fletcher Building boss.

When Ken Lotu-Iiga landed in South Auckland as a child from Samoa, he could speak not a word of English.

A Lincoln University building has been shut down after a concerned staff member took a swab of some dust which returned a positive test for asbestos.

Fletcher Building's Winstone Wallboards unit has temporarily closed a plasterboard factory in Christchurch after finding traces of asbestos in the building.

In what turned out to be a tale of two countries, Fletcher Building announced a lift in its annual net profit yesterday, with Australia's economic downturn detracting from a strong showing in New Zealand.

Australia has old-fashioned union arrangements and needs "a dose of Margaret Thatcher," says Mark Adamson, the British chief executive of Fletcher Building.

When Fletcher Building paid around $1 billion for Formica in 2007, the business was only three years out of a financial hole and Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Fletcher Developments wants new houses to be taller than the Auckland Council is proposing.

Fletcher Building is making a big push into Auckland's apartment development market, forming specialist new division Fletcher Developments this year to hunt down opportunities on big sites.