Business South August 2020

52 | Volume 29 | Issue 4 businesssouth www.ac � on.net.nz • Transport • Marine • Project • Engineering SNELL IS A PROUD SUPPLIER TO PAKWORLD INTERNATIONAL H P Hanna & Co Ltd, Chartered Accountants 222 Memorial Avenue, Burnside, Christchurch P: 03-3798-790 • E: hphanna@hphanna.co.nz • www.hphanna.co.nz HP Hanna & Company Ltd, Chartered Accountants of Christchurch pride ourselves in being friendly, accessible accounting specialists who make it our business to make your business successful. Proud to support and work together with Pakworld International. INDUSTRY » Pakworld / Site Safe ADVERTISING IS GREAT FOR BUSINESS! Get new clients with regular print media Phone: 03 983 5500 Fax: 03 983 5552 waterfordpress.co.nz Local packaging in demand Pakworld manufactures packaging for a diverse range of industries. W hile deftly navigating the supermarket isles doing the weekly shop, chances are the cartons of grocery items migrating from shelf to trolley have been manufactured and printed by the Pakworld team. Based in Christchurch, Pakworld manufactures packaging for a diverse range of industries through- out New Zealand and even supplies speciality products overseas. Converted from board to cartons in its Ferrymead factory, Pakworld looks after everything from design, printing, dye cutting, folding and gluing— providing packaging for the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in super markets, beverages, cos- metics, food service, hardware and horticulture. Quirky bespoke packaging in many shapes and forms including racing car helmets, rugby balls and All Blacks labelled brief cases complement its broad range of cardboard packaging designs. “We’re in a good space because everyone needs packaging and our packaging is not plastic,” says Product Development and Sales Manager Jonathan Flett. “All of our products are either recyclable or compostable.” Pakworld’s roots go back 40 years when Jona- than’s father, Bill Flett, founded the business initially with a focus on commercial printing and packaging. Recognising the opportunity to develop a niche packaging business, Pakworld left printing behind to concentrate on solid fibre cardboard packaging. Remaining in the Flett family until three years ago, Pakworld was sold to its biggest customer, family owned Tumbler Products, who retained all 28 staff, management and the family spirit. Continuing as a family owned operation has en- sured closeness to staff as well as customers which Jonathan considers a core strength of the business, along with its diversity of clients from the very large to ‘mum & dad’ start-up operations. “We’ve also noticed quite a few businesses are bringing their packaging back from China. “When they sit down and engage with us they realize our prices are pretty much the same, if not better than out of Asia and the lead times are quicker. “We’re seeing that a lot and I think we’re going to see it a lot more—if it can be made here people will buy here. We’re a lot more nimble than our overseas competitors.” Jonathan says customers are encouraged to call in and see the product being manufactured. Providing an essential service, Pakworld operated a single shift during Covid level 4, but ramped up to 24-hour operations to catch with FMCG packaging for the supermarkets when the country moved to level 3 and has only recently caught up. W ithout vital cash-flow during the four weeks of level four lockdown the develop- ment of a set of working protocols was critical to the construction industry’s return to work under level three. “The industry is very supply driven,” says Site Safe CEO Brett Murray. “It’s a high cash-flow business and when you cut that off it becomes hugely problematic throughout the supply chain. “So the industry was very keen to get going under level three but had to assure Government and public it was capable of operating safely under onerous level three conditions.” The key was to develop a set of standards and protocols that could be applied to a broad range of construction work sites from residential through to large industrial projects. Working with representatives from the industry sub-sectors - civil, vertical construction and resi- dential - along with Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ), industry not for profit or- ganization Site Safe developed acceptable protocols which aligned with Ministry of Health guidelines. The protocols set out how the industry would meet the Government’s expectations around social distancing and hygiene while working on a dynamic construction site, often with large work teams. “The protocols were given to builders to apply on their site, adapting them as appropriate to the risks relevant to the size and scale of the site works,” says Brett. “Moving from level three to two and then to one, the protocols were effectively loosened to reflect the changed requirements.” While the protocols got the industry back to work, challenges remained to be addressed—the biggest being social distancing. Brett explains that if social distancing could not be maintained because of the nature of a task Construction industry gets new standards in place Richard Loader that task was put aside till distancing rules were relaxed, though generally there was a work-around. Travel also posed problems for workers typically travelling together in one vehicle pre-covid. Solutions ranged from workers finding their own way to site, being shuttled to and from site and working staggered shifts. The transition to level two’s one metre distancing provided some allevia- tion. Brett was impressed with the way the industry self-policed compliance with the protocols, making sure everyone towed the line. “The nature of construction work is that it’s very visible to the public and the public were very concerned about Covid. “You were on display and not hidden in a factory, so workers were very attentive to the fact that on some sites you have members of the public walking past all the time and it’s pretty obvious if you’re not maintaining your distancing.” The industry realized that if it didn’t comply and clusters broke out on a construction site because of poor distancing there was the potential to drop back to a full lockdown or be excluded from level three. “A lot of these businesses work week-to-week. To have a month off and all of a sudden their income is dead is huge—even with the Government subsidy. “So by the time we got to level three they were pretty keen not to spoil things. “That would have been disastrous for the sector because the construction industry is such a huge part of the economy’s re-bound.” Richard Loader “The protocols were given to builders to apply on their site, adapting them as appropriate to the risks relevant to the size and scale of the site works.”