The company which employs 275 full time staff and contributes significantly to the region’s economy was founded in October 1984. Its products Golden Edge MDF and Nelson Pine LVL are widely used in furniture, kitchens, residential and commercial buildings throughout the Asia-Pacific markets but also in the Nelson region. The company supplied LVL product to the new Nelson Airport which has won several architectural awards.
NPI is also proud of its support of other major building products in the region, including the NMIT Arts and Media building, Suter Art Gallery, Nelson Tasman Hospice and Nelson School Music.
In the 1960s a chip mill operated at Lower Queen St, Richmond until 1984 when Newmans Group, Odlins Ltd and Sumitomo Forestry Ltd (SFC) decided to establish a MDF factory to add more value to a wood chip commodity. Later, in 1993 Sumitomo Forestry became the sole shareholder of Nelson Pine Industries.
At that time, the MDF production using continuous presses was the most advanced technology available worldwide. NPI has since expanded to run three lines of MDF production and one production line for LVL and has now become the biggest wood processor in New Zealand’s South Island.
NPI processes one million m3 of logs each year, which represents around a quarter of the entire regional harvest.
Leveraging top-tier technology, some of NPI’s most recent large-scale projects include the use of 1,000m3 of Nelson Pine LVL as the sole material for the main structure of New Zealand’s largest timber office building in Devonport Rd, Tauranga (eight-storey). Among others, Nelson Pine LVL was also used for the building structure of the multi-tenanted retail precinct Nelson Junction.
“I want to express my appreciation and thanks to our shareholders and all our staff, customers, suppliers and community for the past 40 years and look forward to celebrating many more milestones,” said Kai Kruse, executive director and chief executive officer.
“Going forward we will continue to grow our LVL mass timber business, especially for non-residential buildings and we will diversify our MDF products further.”
“The company succeeded in producing the high-quality products that have led to the present day and are now highly regarded both in New Zealand and around the world,” added Murray Sturgeon, chairperson. “The company has achieved significant growth over the past 40 years thanks to all our customers, our strong partnership with Sumitomo Forestry and the support of its dedicated employees.”
