Jobs go as firm shuts down Pridex closure puts 12 staff out of work

Twelve Manawatu workers will lose their jobs after Pridex Kitchens announced it would stop manufacturing in Palmerston North.

The former Manawatu Business of the Year laid off 20 staff last month because of a decline in pre-Christmas business.

The factory will close in March and the 5484 square metres of land and 3372sqm of building space at the 47 Railway Rd site has been put on the market.

Factory manager Steve Chaning-Pearce said the 12 staff left at the factory would have to vie for positions with associate manufacturers in Auckland, Napier and Christchurch.

Mr Chaning-Pearce was not sure how many jobs were available at the other manufacturers, but hoped all the staff would find work.

"I don't want anyone without a job, having to go to Work and Income."

The factory, which Pridex moved to in 2004, was too big for the operation it ran, he said.

The manufacturing industry "is dead" in New Zealand, and the way factories were operated would have to change to give New Zealand a chance of competing with countries such as China, he said.

Manufacturing businesses needed to work around the clock, otherwise massive factories became dead weights for up to 16 hours a day, sucking up any profits, he said.

"That's how China do it, by running second and third shifts seven days a week.

"I'm not suggesting that, but if we want to get serious about it, we've got to run second or third shifts.

"[Workers] get paid more, so there's an incentive."

Mr Chaning-Pearce was sad to see the factory go, but said the business would continue to run in a different form.

"Marketing will continue at our branches in Napier, Wellington and Christchurch," he said.

"The brand will continue."

Pridex Kitchens was the supreme winner at the Manawatu Business Awards in 2007, and has been based in the region for the past 30 years.

The factory site was given a capital valuation of about $2 million and a land valuation of $680,000 in 2009.

Vision Manawatu chief executive Elaine Reilly said she was disappointed to hear the Pridex factory was going. "I know they worked hard and are good people and I hope they do well with what they do."

She said she hoped the workers could be hired by other employers in Manawatu.

"We do quite well here and we have a number of successful manufacturers."

She said manufacturing was not dying, but was in a process of change.

"It takes different skills and there's different ways to add value."

Unable to compete against the low wages countries such as China offered, Mrs Reilly said, businesses instead had to be smarter and offer niche products with better design qualities to stand out from the crowd.

- © Fairfax NZ News