Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Multinational food ingredients brand Langdon, is expanding in New Zealand with a more than $15-million development in Drury.

Langdon, which has a distribution presence in seven countries, commissioned industrial property and construction company, Calder Stewart, to build the 3,500-square-metre (sqm) facility on a 361 hectare site at South Auckland’s Drury South Crossing.

The warehouse would have more than double the capacity of the business’s previous site.

“Younger consumers are reshaping the country’s eating habits at an accelerating pace,” Langdon NZ country manager Kenny Pihema said.

He said the ingredient warehousing and distribution facility was responding to a surging New Zealand demand for third culture cuisine and Gen Z’s evolving interest in foods popularised on social media.

Third culture cuisine referred to dishes created by people raised between two or more cultures who blend their family heritage with the food traditions of the country they grew up in to produce entirely new flavour profiles.

Pihema said many young people come from multicultural households and want flavours that reflect their blended identities, which was driving demand for global spices, botanicals and natural powders.

“Gen Z are the first generation to discover new flavours online rather than at home. Many of them are trying chillies, spices and global cuisines for the very first time through TikTok, food challenges and multicultural friend groups.

“That discovery loop is completely different from older generations and it is rapidly reshaping what manufacturers need.”

He said fusion flavours were showing up in restaurants and ready to eat meals.

“New Zealand food manufacturers and exporters are among the world’s most innovative however, they need access to ingredients that simply were not part of the country’s pantry a decade ago. This expansion is a direct response to that,” he said.

Pihema said global heat challenges, spice tastings and cross-cultural food trends amplified through social media have pushed named chillies, heat profiles and new aromatics into the mainstream.

“Heat is exploding at the moment, Gen Z are driving the chilli culture and experimenting at a scale we have never seen.”

Langdon’s Australian pantry offered more than 2,500 ingredients.

“Thirty years ago when we first launched in New Zealand, we offered less than a handful of chilli varieties.

“Today we supply more than 30 different formats and varieties. The pace of diversification is extraordinary and it is being driven by consumers who want global flavour experiences.”

Calder Stewart North Island development manager Sam Smith said Drury offered clear commercial advantages for a project of this scale.

Langdon Ingredients had signed a long-term lease on the new 3,000 sqm warehouse and 500sqm office and canopy at Drury, with construction beginning in March and completion scheduled for November next year.

Smith said the building included a controlled aromatic zone and humidity management systems to prevent flavour contamination between spices, coffee, botanicals and other sensitive ingredients.

“When you are working with ingredients like chillies, spices and coffee you cannot risk aroma transferring into a dairy or bakery input. The separation zones and climate control ensure product integrity and support the kind of innovation manufacturers are now delivering,” Smith said.

Drury fast developing with strong demand

“A similar build in locations like Mangere, Wiri or East Tamaki would cost around 30 – 40 percent more in annual rent,” Smith said.

The Drury South Crossing precinct has become one of the country’s most active industrial zones, with Calder Stewart currently developing facilities for major occupiers Briscoes Group and Wesfarmers subsidiary, NZ Safety Blackwoods.

The Drury’s large format retail sites were 77 percent conditionally sold to big brand name retail stores including [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/578602/auckland-to-get-a-second-costco-store

Costco Wholesale], Rebel Sport/Briscoes and Harvey Norman.

“The new site sits on a high-profile corner with access for distribution and room for future expansion,” Smith said.

“The facility’s higher stud height gives Langdon Ingredients significantly greater cubic capacity than its Mount Wellington site, aligning the local operation more closely with the company’s larger flagship Australian warehouse.”

Smith said there was strong demand for development on Calder Stewart’s land holdings in Drury, with about seven hectares of developable land remaining.

“We’re in discussions with a range of both long term tenants and owner occupiers, with requirements from 3,000 square metres to over 20,000 square metres. As interest rates ease and construction costs stabilise, we expect activity to lift even further,” he said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Christchurch man has ditched his home insurance after his premiums went up by more than 30 percent a year – or by $1000 – based on new risk pricing.

Tower Insurance has taken into account the risk of sea surge and landslips for the Burwood home, as well as earthquakes and flooding.

But Trevor Taylor says his home is several kilometres from the sea, and he can not understand Tower’s sea surge assessment.

He has challenged that assessment, but said the insurer will not budge.

Taylor has asked to the see the evidence used to assesses his property, but Tower has refused to release specific information.

Taylor told Checkpoint he thought the odds of him being caught up in a sea surge were close to zero.

“They are doubling down and saying ‘no, I am at risk here’ and I just think it’s a load of rubbish.

“If you actually look at the journey where the water would have to go, it’s actually quite ridiculous.”

Taylor said he had done his own research into the journey the sea surge may take to get to his property.

He said it involved the water travelling up an estuary and a river, bursting through stop banks, and travelling uphill past houses before it reached his home.

While Tower had told him that its risk assessment was based off close to 200 million data points, Taylor was sure his own research negated some of the company’s findings.

“I’ve done a bit of my own research and according to the Ministry of Environment, storm surges rarely exceed 0.6 metres on open coasts around New Zealand.”

The Ministry of Environment noted that surges can be higher in some estuaries and harbours, with the largest recorded a 0.9 metre storm surge in Kawhia Harbour in May 2013.

Taylor said he thought Tower was overestimating the risks.

He said he had filed a Privacy Act request, asking for all the information Tower had on his property, but was refused based on the grounds it was commercially sensitive.

“I’d actually like someone from Tower to get out of their ivory tower in Auckland and come down and we’ll drive around and have a look and I can just show them how ridiculous it is.”

Taylor said he felt there was a disconnect between Environment Canterbury, the council and government agencies, as he struggled to find a uniform set of data to base the risks upon.

“I think risk pricing is fair, the thing is, I think they’re actually making up the risk.”

He said a government body should have a responsibility of investigating risk assessments by insurance companies if people felt they were wrong.

“The government or local councils can work together and then they could figure out ways to mitigate these hazards.”

Tower said in a statement that the high sea surge risk rating given to Taylor’s property reflected the likelihood of flooding through nearby water systems, including the Avon River, Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park and Horseshoe Lake.

“If a storm coincides with high tides, water levels can rise, and waterways can carry water many kilometres inland, causing flooding during a sea surge event. Our assessment is consistent with the Christchurch City Council’s flood map which notes the property as being in the council’s flood hazard management area, with a one in 200-year flood risk.”

Tower said fewer than 10 percent of properties with higher sea surge or landslide risks would see an increase in the natural hazards portion of their premiums. A third of those would see a premium increase of less than $100 a year, and the majority would be less than $300 a year.

“For some customers with significantly higher risks, the natural hazards portion of the premium will increase by more.”

Tower would not release detailed data because “it would not help customers understand the risks”.

“For example our sea surge model considers a range of different historical and possible tidal heights within storm scenarios – sharing this detailed data would not help customers understand their risks. It is also commercially sensitive. Instead, we simplify this information into a risk rating, which represents our evaluation of the insurance risk for a property based on this data.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand