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Rob Fyfe: Recorp chair on the start-up opening its new aluminium facility · The SME Stream

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  Speaker 1: At one hundred million dollars. This is probably New Zealand's
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  Speaker 1: most expensive startup and today Recorp has finally started up.
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  Speaker 1: It's opened its new aluminium facility. Now the company wants
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  Speaker 1: to become a big player in the packaging industry, focusing
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  Speaker 1: on aluminium cans and also bottles, and it's attracted big
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  Speaker 1: name investors like Annamobraid, the rich lister and former and
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand executive Rob Fife, who is actually the chair
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  Speaker 1: and is with us now, Hey, Rob, Hi, Heather, Rob
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: this one. We have been following this story for such
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  Speaker 1: a long time. It feels like it's been such a
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  Speaker 1: long It has been so long in the works, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: to be fair, help me longer for you than for me,
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  Speaker 1: because you've been there from the outset outset, so you
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  Speaker 1: must be stoked to get the thing opened. When do
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  Speaker 1: you do your first runner cans?
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  Speaker 2: We've actually already done our first run, so over the
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  Speaker 2: last week or two we've produced about one and a
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  Speaker 2: half million cans, which is just to get going. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, it kind of feels pretty elated to have
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  Speaker 2: the official opening today, But at the same time it's
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  Speaker 2: relief as much as anything else. Why relie. Well. You know,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: for anyone that's built a house, you pour money into
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  Speaker 2: a hole in the ground for a long long time.
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  Speaker 2: It's really only at the final stage that it takes
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  Speaker 2: shape and you kind of get a sense of what
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  Speaker 2: that hard, hard work is going to realize in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the end result. And this project's been like that.
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  Speaker 2: And I've been going for three years a lot of money,
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  Speaker 2: and it's you know, it's kind of just in the
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  Speaker 2: last couple of months finally you kind of see this
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  Speaker 2: whole thing taking shape and there's product coming out at
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  Speaker 2: the end, and it's like, wow, now we can actually
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  Speaker 2: get out there and start making a difference.
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  Speaker 1: And making some money. The first one and a half
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  Speaker 1: billion cans have they been sold.
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  Speaker 2: They have, so pretty much everything we make is specific
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  Speaker 2: to order for customers. And the challenge with this plant
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  Speaker 2: in New Zealand, you know, you buy all the all
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  Speaker 2: the plant equipment from offshore and offshore markets. You know,
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  Speaker 2: if you're in the US and you're making cans for
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, Budweiser, then you know they'll do a
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  Speaker 2: run of a million or two million cans at a time.
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  Speaker 2: We was here in the New Zealand market, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it was so small, so you know, Behemoth might want
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  Speaker 2: thirty thousand cans at a time, or garage project wants
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  Speaker 2: sixty thousand, and the equipment isn't traditionally been set up to
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  Speaker 2: do really short runs efficiently. So we've had to design
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  Speaker 2: this plant in a way that isn't like any other
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  Speaker 2: plant in the world, and that's created a lot of
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  Speaker 2: complexity and all sorts of challenges. But we'll solve those
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  Speaker 2: challenges and we've built a plant that's specifically designed for
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  Speaker 2: the scale of the New Zealand marketplace and we're pretty
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  Speaker 2: excited about that.
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  Speaker 1: It's a bit of a time to be opening a
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  Speaker 1: plant like this with manufacturing shutting down all over the
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  Speaker 1: place because of power prices.
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  Speaker 2: Did that worry you, Yeah, yeah, it did worry So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's one of the topics we discussed with
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  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. In our first year of operation. I
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  Speaker 2: think we'll spend probably five times more on electricity then
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  Speaker 2: we'll spend on starf half cost and the plant for example.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So we're very sensitive to both electricity in guests. So
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  Speaker 2: it is a concern and they're not issues that are
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  Speaker 2: going to be solved in the short term, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: I do believe that the government is committing to putting
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  Speaker 2: us on a path where we're going to increase our
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  Speaker 2: capacity over the coming years.
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  Speaker 1: When you said putting us on a path, you mean
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  Speaker 1: the entire country on a path.
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  Speaker 2: The entire entire country, you know, looking at how we
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  Speaker 2: can invest in more renewables, and clearly you know they're
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  Speaker 2: having a close look at what we can do with
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  Speaker 2: natural guests and so on.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you Robert also involved in me. You've got your
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  Speaker 1: fingers in a lot of pies, but you're also involved
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: at Craiggie Range Winery. Are you worried about those promised
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  Speaker 1: tariffs from Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 2: You know, we're a small trading nation that relies a
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  Speaker 2: lot on market access. You kind of have to see
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  Speaker 2: the full picture, right, he's talking about increasing terrorists, but
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  Speaker 2: the same time he's talking about text cuts domestically. So
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  Speaker 2: ultimately it's all about affordability. And you know the advantage
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  Speaker 2: we have is New Zealand. You know, our biggest wine
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  Speaker 2: export into the US is Sauvignon blanc. The Californians have
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  Speaker 2: been trying to replicate the flavor of the wines we
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  Speaker 2: produce in New Zealand. Here for some time and just
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  Speaker 2: haven't been able to kind of crack that nut. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm confident ultimately that you know, if you love a
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand Soavon blanc and the price goes up by
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  Speaker 2: you know, however many dollars, does that mean you're going
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  Speaker 2: to stop drinking that wine and drink something you don't
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  Speaker 2: like it?
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  Speaker 1: Probably not?
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  Speaker 2: Probably not so, particularly if you've had particularly if you've
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  Speaker 2: had text cuts and you've got more disposable income and
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  Speaker 2: your wallet and so on. So I think we've got
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  Speaker 2: to be optimistic and back ourselves that will kind of
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  Speaker 2: be able to adapt to whatever whatever regime unfolds.
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  Speaker 1: And also you have to believe he's actually going to
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  Speaker 1: do it right. And the thing that you keep hearing
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  Speaker 1: about him is he's extremely transactional, and he could be
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: talked out of things, because, for example, he gave us
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  Speaker 1: the steel tariffs, but he was talked out of giving
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  Speaker 1: Ossie the steel tariffs. So if we if we hit
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  Speaker 1: him really hard diplomatically, we may be able to get
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  Speaker 1: out of it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that. I think, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: heard when some Peter's on earlier on your program, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and I think the way that at a political level
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  Speaker 2: that we play the next you know, three four or
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  Speaker 2: five months is going to be absolutely critical in terms
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  Speaker 2: of how we set ourselves up to manage this scenario.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, there's some countries I'm being listening to
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  Speaker 2: some of the commentary today, there's some countries that are
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  Speaker 2: clearly on the back foot because of positions have taken
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  Speaker 2: against them, you know, the president or about to be president.
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  Speaker 2: And I think in that regard, I think we're in
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  Speaker 2: a pretty good position here at.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon you're right reason to be optimistic. Hey, Rob,
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  Speaker 1: thank you very much. Oh by the way, what should
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  Speaker 1: I go and buy? If I want to get my
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  Speaker 1: hands on a recorp can what should I be buying?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Garage Project one of our first customers, Behemoth, get
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  Speaker 2: into some of that great New Zealand craft beer. Great
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  Speaker 2: place to start.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you're telling a pregnant lady to drink beer, So
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  Speaker 1: we'll just we'll just remember that, Rob. They do some
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  Speaker 1: zero alcohol ones that Garage Project. Hey, thanks Rob, look
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  Speaker 1: after yourself the Shrob five Recorp Chair Strategic Advisor at
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  Speaker 1: Craigie Range Winery as well