STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

Reports from Branch Presidents February 2023

Canterbury

CJMA had their first meeting for the year on February the 7th. We had a good turnout of around 25 members. It was good to catch up and talk about the year ahead. Everyone seems positive even though the media is not so optimistic. One topic that was brought up was there seems to be more slow paying customers than usual.

We had Marie and Louise from the Workforce Development Council at the meeting talking about the work they are doing around the apprenticeship training standards and asking members for feedback. It was interesting to hear our members feedback, varied but overall positive. Mary and Louise are both are very passionate about joinery moving forward incorporating new technologies.

We have our annual golf day coming up on 17th of March (St Patrick’s Day). We are hoping to crack the 100 mark of participants this year. A big thanks to all the sponsors. We had a big push on getting members to submit entries for our CJMA local awards held on 28th April this year. It is a highlight on the events calendar. We had a show of hands who is going to conference and looks like we have got good numbers attending again this year.

of staff movement over the past few months. Some moving on and changing industries. Others moving between members and non-members to better suit their circumstances. We had Wayne White retire after 49 years in the industry.

This year I am making it my goal to get more member engagement from our region. Instead of just holding fun activities, I want to get some content together for members that is going to benefit them and add value. We still need some fun stuff though and this year our annual golf day falls on St Patricks Day – so that will be a fun day out.

Conference in Wellington is sneaking up on us. I hope everyone is working on their Award Entries. It was great to walk around and look at them all last year. We have some seriously talented members out there.

- Kristine Holmes

Nelson Marlborough

Happy new year everyone, it has been a wonderful Christmas and New Year in the Nelson/ Marlborough region, we trust all of our Joinery whanau NZ wide had a restful break.

Otago Southland

Here we go again team. 2023 is upon us, coming in HOT. What a summer! There’s been no better place in NZ than the Deep SOUTH. We deserved the hot temperatures; fair reward for consistently hitting above our weight. Christmas Holidays finally arrived [phew!], and I hope that all members have enjoyed the long days, relaxing with family and friends, reflecting on what we’ve achieved in 2022, and on what 2023 has to offer.

On that front, we’ve got plenty booked into the Calendar for Master Joiners for this year. You might as well join in; we relate more than your family and friends.

First up, Tuesday 21st February - Central Benchmakers factory visit, followed by a combined NKBA meeting: This may make the print deadline, or, we could be too late. If you know, you know.

Paul Baker

Central

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Central Region kicked off the year with a social gathering down at the pub so that members could catch up on holiday shenanigans. It was also a great opportunity to debrief on the first few weeks back at work.

After talking with members, it is still looking positive for the region. Most members have a workload booked in for the first six months of the year. There are signs that it is slowing down slightly but nothing too major at the moment which is great for our members. There has been a bit

A general feeling in the region is we need to be more mindful of the market and our core business, how perhaps normal times were. With it having been so busy and frantic for the past few years the need for proactive marketing, pedantic business planning and monitoring hasn’t been as important as it probably will be later this year. The workloads seem to be very busy at present but there definitely is a fall off for some mid-year compared to where they have been.

So, keeping positive - everything is an opportunity, we are all being proactive in business planning, diversification and marketing focus for a year full of new challenges, the new ’new’. - Phil Agnew

Tuesday 14th March, Invercargill. SIT Joinery Advisory meeting, and then a regular catch up at Buster Crabs. We should have some good direction from HQ at this time. April – we are in Wanaka, at the new Artisan Stone showroom. Bright-Shiny things. May AGM and Mid-Year gathering. National Conference from 25 – 27 May. Also, in the pipeline to confirm – Fisher & Paykel visit, Mataura MDF Plant, a Golf Day, and plenty of other stuff. Get your staff involved. Bring them along. This is a great environment to learn, share some ideas and war stories, celebrate wins, and let some steam off. If you are reading this in your Smoko room – tell your boss you want to come along too.

I look forward seeing you all soon.

Mā te wā - Reuben Bogue

Taranaki

With Christmas well behind us, we’ve been back at work for just a month and already our New Years holiday seems just a blur. Basically, most joinery companies reported taking an extra week and started back in late January.The long hot and humid days make it hard to be motivated in the workshop, and staying hydrated is a concern too. Now into February and all the children are back at school, Taranaki members are finding they have steady workloads in front on them. Most materials are in good supply, with little hold ups in getting them. With the Auckland bad weather, couriered items are taking a couple more days to arrive. Merchants are reporting that its slower than usual for this time of year. Suppliers have deferred making price increases until later in the year, so that’s a good thing for all of us. The cost of house builds has increased by 40% on last year’s figures, some builder’s jobs have been deferred or scrapped all together, which not good for joinery companies. This means that we are looking for more work to fill in the space that’s been left empty. There seems to be lots of small renovation jobs around and builders are using these as fillers until their much bigger jobs start. Attracting staff is an on-going headache, with our Taranaki region having a number of companies advertising for fulltime qualified staff

In Taranaki at the TSB Stadium we just had ‘Tradies tools down’ this afternoon, starting at 3pm and going until 7pm which was well received by all trades that attended. Guest speaker Mike King talked about Mental Health, and a number of companies donated food and drink which they cooked up for the hungry trades people. We were able to mix and mingle after, and of course enjoy our great Taranaki sunshine. A big thanks to Building Wellness Taranaki for this initiative.

I think its going to be difficult year with lots of ups and down, so lets all be patient and move forward together. So let’s be kind and stay safe out there. -

Bryan Frank

Waikato Bay Of Plenty

Waikato/BOP Members are experiencing a very busy start to 2023. Most sectors of the building industry still have plenty of forward work although the impact of high inflation, high interest rates and tighter lending criteria is expected to have a flowon effect on residential building by mid year. With this in mind, we can start to plan how we use this time to reconnect with our businesses and our Master Joiner community.

Waikato/BOP Master Joiners will be offering Member events this year that will provide opportunities to connect with each other, visit interesting places as well as share and learn skills that will support our businesses and our people. We encourage our Members to include their teams in these events. Share the knowledge and the camaraderie with them … they may be the future owners of your business! Details of our events will be posted on the Master Joiners website soon. Our first event will be our annual Ken Monk Fishing Trip which has had a few false starts due to the pandemic and weather conditions. We have new Members joining our Waikato/BOP community this year. We look forward to having them involved.

So for now, it’s ‘make hay while the sun shines’ Be safe out there and remember to take care of yourselves.

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WAITAKI

Cherie van der Poel

All joiners are reporting that they are currently busy and have good amounts of work heading into the new year. Some firms have lost and taken on new staff while other firms are saying that they could do with more staff and unfortunately don’t have the spare time to train more staff

Everyone down this way is ok with materials no real problems there, although some have mentioned the rise in timber and board prices.

Payments; no real issues in this department although a couple have said some of the bigger customers are now paying on the last day of the month which is a pain, but everyone is paying. Everyone seems to feel confident that our area will be fine being in SC we don’t seem to notice the wave that other areas around the country do as we have a stable workforce led by farmers, freezing works, Fonterra and the Port so spending in SC seems to remain fairly consistent. -

Wellington

Warren Atwill

Goodbye 2022 and welcome 2023. Members are reporting so far, so good after a well deserved break. Wellington had a fantastic end of year function at Mana Cruising club with our best ever turnout. We had great food, lots of giveaways, a few bevys and fantastic legends in attendance. A BIG shoutout to our sponsors (you know who you are).

Wellington’s local Legends of the industry have been busy attending career days at High schools around the region. This was a great way to promote our superb industry and plant the seed for the next generation. I suggest all regions get out and get in so we can reap the rewards in the future.

We have a few members with 6-12 months of forward work which is great, others have seen a slight downturn. Stock has been a bit easier to get (ignoring terrible freight) and costs have stabilised for the time being. It seems we will have a few challenges this year with the minimum wage rise, high inflation, election year, freight issues and more. Time will tell.

I’m doing my best to stay optimistic but this year, I’ll take some time this year to look after my mental and physical health which I think we always seem to forget to do.

- Grant Smith