MORE INDUSTRIES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12614, 26 November 1926, Page 6

MORE INDUSTRIES

HUTT VALLEY BOOMING TWO BIG FIRMS TAKE UP LAND THIRD CONCERN MENTIONED Big developments in the industrial area of the Hutt Valley are pending. Besides a purchase of an area said to be about five acres by the famous firm of Australian sweet manufacturers, Macßobertson and Son, another big deal has just been announced, and it is stated that there is a third pending. Recently Macßobertson’s published their intention of commencing manufacture in tho Dominion, and plans have been prepared for the factory, which is to be erected on the site recently acquired at Hutt. Now it is learned that the big Australian concern of Mertters, Ltd., has purchased 121 acres in the industrial area at a price of £12,500, and that it intends to pursue a policy of general development of its works there. Simultaneously with this action, announces Mr G. D. Little, the New Zealand representative of Metters, his firm has absorbed the Standard Porcelain, which company is already in occupation of works next General Motors, and will operate this concern, CAPITAL OF MILLION Metters, in Australia, is a big firm with a capital of £1,000,000. The newly-formed concern will be known as Metters (N.Z.), Ltd., and its capital will be a quarter of a million. The Dominion enterprise will not undertake such a wide range of manufactures as the parent firm as yet, and at the moment it is concentrating on cast-iron, enamel, and sheet-iron work. But a policy of development is to be followed, and the purchase of 7J acres, in addition to the five already occupied by Standard Porcelain works, is an earnest of this intention. Recently, in Australia, Mr H. L. Spring, managing director of Metters, is reported to have said that high labour costs in the Commonwealth and New Zealand’s higher protection would combine to induce his firm to start operations here. It is reported, also, that Nestles, Ltd., have been negotiating in the Dominion for a parcel of land in the Hutt Valley, but any such overtures have not yet approached finality, and Mr F. W. Vickerman, Wellington manager of Nestles, when approached on the matter, said that he was ignorant of any such move.