14 Jun 2022

Simplicity Living to meet with Fletcher Building over Gib

From Morning Report, 7:26 am on 14 June 2022

Simplicity Living will meet with Fletcher Building this Friday, to ask for answers to the Gib supply crisis.

Simplicity has cancelled its contracts with Fletcher and instead started importing foreign plasterboard because it is cheaper and quicker to get.

Speaking on Monday night on Checkpoint, Fletcher's CEO Ross Taylor said no one could have foreseen the global supply problems alongside a big jump in the number of building consents during the pandemic.

However he accepted his company's near-monoploy brings with it the responsibility to meet demand.

Ross Taylor said stockpiling was only a small part of the problem and Fletcher Building is ramping up Gib production and importing plasterboard to try to fix the shortage.

Simplicity Living Director Shane Brealey spoke to Corin Dann.