Escea to expand in new plant

Dunedin gas fire manufacturer Escea New Zealand has outgrown its Devon St premises near the harbour and will move next week to its new $4 million purpose-built manufacturing plant in Green Island.

Escea's floor space will double to 3000sq m in the single-storey purpose-built open-span factory, plus offices, and provide the potential to increase production four-fold in the future, Escea marketing manager Mark Cowden said yesterday.

Staffing will be held at 44.

"We're keen to go into some open space after being constrained where we are for some time," he said.

Founded in 2002 and moving from research and development to manufacturing in 2005, the business grew from eight to 44 employees.

Turnover is up from $6.3 million in 2006-07 and almost $10 million in 2007-08, with expectations of "modest growth" on last year, he said.

This financial year, Escea forecast some growth on last year's 3000 gas fire units produced to its domestic (70%) and export (30%) markets - including Australia, the United States, Canada and United Kingdom markets - with overall exports increasing its sales share by about 10% in the past 15-months.

"We will be in a position to grow and surf [economic growth], but it's hard to know exactly when that will be," Mr Cowden said yesterday.

In mid-2008, Escea made its first shipment of fires to the United States, forecasting a more than 30% increase in turnover at the time, but the global recession cast a shadow on plans, which saw "sales flat, but holding their ground", Mr Cowden said.

"The US building market has been hit harder than us. But it has been good as we have had the time to become established and set up distribution."