Being in a position to employ people in Dunedin, rather than being involved in redundancies, is something that Cottonsoft operations manager Chris Batchelor is relishing.
The company, which manufactures toilet tissue and paper towels, is adding a night shift to its Dunedin operation which will boost numbers from 11 to 15.
Mr Batchelor had been involved with the last three rounds of redundancies at the Timaru St factory when its future in Dunedin was uncertain.
But business was now going well and the factory had been at capacity for ''quite some time''.
There had previously been too much work for one shift, but not enough for two.
Increased demand and the subsequent decision to put on a second shift, likely to be in mid-March, was ''fantastic''.
''It's really good to be in a position to put on a new shift, grow the people and grow the site,'' Mr Batchelor said.
Having been through some hard times, it was nice to have some ''good ones'', Cottonsoft country manager New Zealand Kim Calvert added.
The Cottonsoft plant was established in Dunedin in the mid-1980s and the privately owned company was sold to Indonesian conglomerate Asia Pulp and Paper in a multimillion-dollar deal in 2007.
A sister operation was set up in Auckland to combat the high cost of transporting product around the country.
While the long-term intention originally was to eventually leave the Dunedin site, the decision was later made to expand in the city.
It made sense being closer to customers in the South Island, as it was a bulky and low-value product which was expensive to ship, while the raw material could be delivered to Port Chalmers for the same price as to Auckland, Mr Calvert said.
Various business opportunities had resulted in the company needing to increase capacity.
Cottonsoft had taken an increased share of the market, its brands had grown, with premium product Paseo having grown substantially, and that segment of the market was also expanding fast, Mr Calvert said.
It had also recently won a private label contract, it had some ''significant'' corporate customers and the expansion of the business was ''quite exciting'', he said.
From a Dunedin perspective, it was ''really positive'' to expand in the city, rather than have more bad news in the manufacturing sector.
Three out of the four new positions had already been filled, including one former Cottonsoft staff member who had been made redundant three and a-half years ago.
The remaining position was a ''fairly specialised'' role for a team leader. Supervisory skills, along with an engineering background, were being sought, Mr Batchelor said.
The company had some investment plans for the Dunedin site, with about $400,000 expected to be spent this year on new plant.
Over the next two or three years, he expected about $1.5 million to be spent upgrading plant and building efficiencies.
In 2013, Cottonsoft signed a four-year extension to the lease on the building it has occupied since 1999.
For the short term, it was large enough but, long term, the company would have to look at something else.
It had also taken back some storage area that had previously been given up.
In Auckland, the factory was housed in a 7500sq m building and the company was seeking a suitable site to build an 18,000sq m factory, at an expected cost of between $25 million and $30 million for land and buildings, Mr Calvert said.
At the Dunedin factory, what looked like a giant imported toilet roll weighing about 700kg was unwound, embossed, perfumed (if required), perforated and printed, before being rolled on to small cores and packaged.
All products produced in Dunedin were destined for South Island customers, with about 2500 tonnes sent out of the factory last year.
That was expected to be about 4000 tonnes following the expansion.
Cottonsoft's share of the toilet tissue market was about 35%, while it was about 20% of kitchen towels and a ''small player'' in facial tissues.
It was also looking at developing new business for other tissue areas, Mr Calvert said.
Its brands in toilet tissue were CottonSofts, KiwiSoft and Paseo, while it had Tuffy and Paseo in kitchen towels, and Paseo facial tissues.
On the commercial side, it had two brands, Livi and Gracefield, in the market.
Next month, Paseo would be launched as a product with lotion included.
There was definitely a move to more premium products, which was following overseas trends, Mr Calvert said.
Although the industry was very competitive, so was Cottonsoft, which was part of the reason for its success, he said.
It was relatively low-cost, prided itself on offering a very personal service, rather than a ''corporate company attitude'', ran a ''pretty efficient'' operation, and it produced a good product.
Cottonsoft employed 145 staff nationally and was fortunate to have good people working in the business, he said.
The company had always retained some senior roles in Dunedin, including Mr Batchelor's position, and a lot of video-conferencing was done.
It was helpful having members of the executive team around the sites, Mr Calvert said.
For Mr Batchelor, had the Dunedin site closed, it would have meant relocating - not something he wanted to do, he said.
