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Rob Fyfe: Recorp chair on the start-up opening its new aluminium facility · Best of Business

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