11.15 am, Tuesday 29 April, 2008
Mr Mayor, Arpad Nemeth, Tony O’Brien, distinguished guests, members of the touring delegation. It gives me enormous pleasure to be here today for this ground-breaking ceremony.
It is very appropriate and I must say a welcome courtesy that AHI Roofing and its parent company Fletcher Building have chosen to involve the local community in a ceremony such as this today.
No matter how big, how innovative and how exciting the project is, and how much it means to those involved, we are guests in your country Mr Nemeth. The investment, the skills of the workforce, the technical knowledge and the location are all important.
But the ultimate success of the project often rests on the relationship between the investor and the workforce and the local municipality. From what I’ve seen this morning, a lot of effort has gone into that aspect and we’ll all reap the benefit.
The investment by Fletcher Building through its subsidiary AHI Roofing is the largest New Zealand investment of its kind in Hungary and we welcome this extension of trade links between our two countries. It is also New Zealand’s largest investment in a manufacturing facility in Europe for many years.
When looking for a plant site, Hungary stood out as the favoured location based on the technical knowledge and skills of the local workforce and Varpalota’s excellent infrastructure and links to the rest of Europe.
The plant will initially provide 100 jobs. The companies will use the skills and innovation of the Hungarian workforce to further develop their product range. They will also work with the municipality to develop further workforce skills.
AHI Roofing was the innovator of the metal steel roof tile which we in New Zealand know by the Gerard brand name. Gerard roofs have been sold in Hungary by a distributor Holimex for many years.
Thanks to Holimex, the Hungarian market for these roof tiles has grown significantly and Fletchers and AHI look forward to even higher levels of growth in future years in partnership with Holimex.
AHI Roofing celebrated its 50th birthday last year. It is known for a loyal workforce; many of its workers in Auckland have been with the company more than 30 years and it enjoys a similar relationship with its workforce where it has built plants abroad such as this one in Varpalota.
Thank you for the opportunity to be part of your celebrations today. It is an honour for me personally and as the leader of the delegation.
Good luck, best wishes and we will watch the progress here in Varpalota with interest.
Ka kite ano
