| 61 T T Hugh de Lacy Tax break promoted at birthday bash Birthday celebrations: PLP NZ’s Brett Hewitt and Prime Minster Christopher Luxon get down to business. PLP NZ MANUFACTURING The 75th birthday celebrations of a New Zealand company specialising in the production of equipment for electricity generation and transmission has been celebrated with a visit from Prime Minster Christopher Luxon, who used the occasion to highlight the Government’s new Investment Boost tax break for businesses. PLP NZ was started by Murray Wallace in May 1950 as Electropar Ltd, importing electrical timers and relays, and grew into the manufacture of overhead power line components and the distribution of specialty engineered electrical products. By 2010, Electropar had graduated into a range of precision-engineered solutions for electrical utilities in New Zealand and Australia, and in that year it was wholly acquired by the American giant PLP Preformed, based in Cleveland, Ohio. PLP is represented in around 150 countries, with a staff of 3500 and 29 separate manufacturing plants. The New Zealand subsidiary has a staff of 70, manufacturing the likes of high-voltage air-insulated busbar systems with a capacity of up to 500kV, and powerline hardware for Transpower and other New Zealand generators and lines companies, as well as supplying its sister company in Australia. The Prime Minister chose PLP’s East Tamaki factory and the company’s anniversary to publicise the Investment Boost initiative announced in the May Budget, allowing a broad range of companies a 20% tax deduction for acquiring new plant and machinery. The initiative is to allow businesses to accelerate the depreciation of their assets by taking a larger deduction in the year of purchase. Christopher Luxon was joined by PLP NZ’s Brett Hewitt in cutting the cake, and said the Budget boost was aimed at encouraging “companies like PLP to be able to make investments in plant and equipment”. He added that the energy sector in which PLP works “is critical – it makes a huge difference to how quickly an economy can grow”. The New Zealand company started with a factory in Grey Lynn in the 1970s, during which time it geared up for growth in the electrical utility sector, and moved to its current premises in 1995. Murray’s sons Grant and Tony Wallace bought their father out in 1996 and on-sold the going concern to the American parent. “We’re now exporting our busbar systems into Australia via our sister company PLP Australia, as well as manufacturing and supplying many of the critical transmission and distribution connection components of the New Zealand grid,” says Simon Pratt, PLPNZ’s general manager for sales and marketing. “Our product line is diverse, including many PLP and third-party products, and we see ourselves as a local company with a global reach. “We produce a wide range of products and solutions here in Auckland for both the overhead and underground elements of the national electricity distribution network, including transmission, telecommunications and an extensive repertoire of industrial and marine solutions. “Besides our traditional products, we’re able to design and manufacture items uniquely suited to the needs of our clients everywhere. “We’ve got 75 years behind us, but many more to go,” Simon says. www.bascik.co.nz 03 3430001 aklsales@bascik.co.nz An express freight network that can be trusted • Na�onwide Freight Network • Warehouse and Logis�cs Management • Incomparable Service • CarbonReduce ToiTu Cer�fied PLP.COM P. 09 274 2000 E. SALES@PREFORMED.CO.NZ PROUD TO HAVE BEEN SERVING NZ INDUSTRY FOR 75 YEARS Distribution Transmission Substation Fibre Communication Hazardous Area Asset Inspection Services Electrical Materials Fire Suppression Cellpack/Heatshrink Manufacturing Services PLP New Zealand — global leader in electrical engineering, providing reliable solutions for critical connections and trusted products for energy and communications providers worldwide.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=