Business North July / August 2021

70 | People focus cornerstone of success Richard Loader Rayonier Matariki Forests FORESTRY W ith its roots stemming back 33 years, Rayonier Matariki Forests is New Zealand’s third largest forestry com- pany with approximately 120,000 hectares of plantations on a 166,000-hectare land base. When Carter Holt Harvey sold a lot of its estate in 2005 Rayonier entered into a joint venture with several other parties, forming Rayonier Matariki Forests and purchasing 95,000ha of Carter Holt Harvey forests. Adding its own forests to the newly formed venture, Rayonier became the manager of the Matariki Forests. Close to its forests, Rayonier Matariki Forests has regional offices throughout New Zealand including Invercargill, Rangiora, Hawke’s Bay, Tauranga and Whangarei, with Head Office based in Auckland. At the heart of the forestry company’s success is a focus on people. In addition to an extensive contractor workforce, Rayonier Matariki employs a team of one hundred of its own staff based in the regional offices. Underlining the company’s people focus, Rayonier Matariki Forests recently won the Supreme category in the Ministry of Primary Industries Primary Industries Good Employ- er Award. Will Steward, Northland Regional Manager says there has always been a very close-knit group of people working for Rayoni- er Matariki Forests, but its success has been about how the company has managed its peo- ple and provided the opportunities to shine. “They’re very open-minded and give people a free hand to make decisions at a lower level, along with the tools and capability to do that. So the success has always been about the people doing the job and that flows through to how we work along side our contractors to help them develop as well.” “Another key to our success is always acting as though we were the owner of the land, even if it does not belong to us.” to page 72 While people are at the heart of the compa- ny, Will says Rayonier’s vision right at the out- set, seeing value in the Carter Holt estate and blending that with its own estate, provided a solid foundation from which to build. “Another key to our success is always acting as though we were the owner of the land, even if it does not belong to us. “‘All decisions are made based upon that and I see that as a cornerstone of success. We don’t go in and do things if we would not do so on our own piece of land.” Rayonier Matariki’s Whangarei office is located in Glenbervie Forest and Will and his team looks after estates from just north of Whanga - rei all the way down to the Bombays, south Forestry Work Rhodes for Roads has enjoyed a great working relationship with Rayonier Matariki for many years now, maintaining and creating forestry roading and landings. Our Company and staff particularly value working with them as a client who has set high standards in making safety a priority within the forestry industry. This industry plays an important part in the Northland economy and we are proud to work with Rayonier Matariki and be a part of the industry. Do it once, do it right