Aulsebrook’s sale

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 1

Aulsebrook’s sale

The centur y-old A u 1 s ebrook s biscuit factory in Christchurch will soon be put on the market and sold as a complete unit, with an asking price of about S3M for the 22,000 sq m building on 2.39 hectares of land.

The managing director of A. B. Consolidated Holdings, Ltd, (Mr O. R. Gunn) said from Auckland yesterday that he would come to Christchurch in the next two weeks to talk to real estate agents about the sale of the property, which is in a block bounded by St Asaph Street, Antigua Street, and Montreal Street.

"It is not on the market yet, but it could be soon,” he said. Mr Gunn said that he had no-one in mind as a potential buyer, but wanted to do the best thing for it, preferring to sell the land off in “one big utilisation.” The property has a Government capital valuation (1974) of $2,036,000, the land being valued at $992,000 and improvements at $1,044,000. Mr Gunn said he thought the property would have a market value of about S3M.

Meanwhile, the company has sold most of its confectionery plant, but is still making two lines of

sweets. Two small parcels of land have also been sold, but the biscuit manufacturing plant is still unsold, although Mr Gunn said he was working on a scheme to dispose of it.

About 250 biscuit and confectionery workers were laid off last year when the company decided that continuation of biscuit manufacturing in Christchurch was not viable. The company makes all its biscuits at its Auckland factory. Mr Gunn confirmed that if the company sold its property it would continue its present confectionery production from another site in Christchurch.