40 | Altus NZ T T Kim Newth Aluminium leader thriving in the hub Their Highbrook base of operations is conveniently close to Viridian Glass and Metro Performance Glass, both key suppliers for Altus®, which operates nationwide. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Highbrook in East Tāmaki is home to Altus® NZ Limited, a New Zealand leader in aluminium, whose expert team works hand in hand to meet the needs of a range of industries and the construction sector as a specialist designer, manufacturer, innovator and exporter of aluminium extrusions and extrusion-based building systems. A world-class business park, Highbrook offers the right scale and scope for companies seeking to build their business, their way. Altus® is a well-established, high-profile member of the Highbrook community. “Highbrook is a key hub for us. Our head office is located at 49 Business Parade North, alongside our distribution centre for Altus® Industrial Aluminium, and the Stellar® Doors factory,” says Altus® marketing manager, Scott Thompson. “Just down the road at number 33 we have Bradnam’s®, an Altus-owned windows and door fabrication business. As we’ve grown, we’ve expanded across multiple sites – Highbrook has become a really important base for the business.” Their Highbrook base of operations is conveniently close to Viridian Glass and Metro Performance Glass, both key suppliers for Altus®, which operates nationwide. The aluminium frontrunner has distribution centres in Hamilton and Christchurch. Hamilton is also home to the Altus® extrusion plants and powder coating lines. “Altus® is essentially made up of two core parts,” Scott says. “Under the Altus® New Zealand umbrella are two business units: Altus® Industrial Aluminium and Altus® Window Systems. Altus® Industrial supplies aluminium sheet and plate, as well as extruded product to the marine industry, transport, aerospace and other industrial sectors. “We also design and manufacture custom extrusions for clients requiring a completely bespoke profile. In this sense, we work in partnership with our customers. “On the Altus® Window Systems side we have a number of brands, including Fisher® Windows, Nebulite®, Nulook®, Rylock® and Vistalite®, all of which cater to everything from modest family homes and apartments to architectural homes, schools and high-rise commercial buildings.” Bradnam’s®, fully owned by Altus®, fabricates aluminium product to service window and door needs of volume home builders and the retirement sector. “Most of our brands operate as independent licensee businesses that can manufacture our products,” says Scott. “Some of these brands, such as Rylock®, are household names in their own right. The Altus® R&D team design and engineer the window systems. Altus® then extrudes the aluminium profiles at our mill in Hamilton. The licensees then manufacture the windows and doors locally at their factories. Our licensee network is one of the largest in the country, with more than 100 around New Zealand.” With licensees in Tonga, Samoa and Thailand, Altus® Window Systems is a busy exporter, while Altus® Industrial Aluminium exports widely to countries like Canada, Mexico and Brazil. In the New Zealand market, there has been a big shift towards thermally broken joinery and improved joinery performance as a result of changes to the Building Code, particularly to Clause H1 Energy Efficiency in buildings. That has driven new investment in plant to meet rapidly expanding demand for thermally broken joinery. “At Altus®, we have not only increased our manufacturing capacity around thermally broken joinery, but we’ve gone a step further and recessed the frame to enhance thermal performance,” says Scott. “Traditionally, single-glazed windows sat outside the wall of the building, exposing the frame to cold outside temperatures.
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