Earlier this year, company founder and marketing director Jim Robertson said the company ''desperately'' needed a new factory and was researching options to move operations into one building instead of working out of seven.
However, damage to a warehouse had pulled the company out of ''expansion mode'' - although it was still looking at its options, and was forming a committee involving senior staff members to look at the pros and cons of staying in Lawrence, he said.
Initial estimates for a new factory were between $3 million and $4 million, a cost which Mr Robertson described as ''almost prohibitive'', but building a new factory or finding an investor for the building had not been ruled out, he said.
The company was ''probably able'' to fund some options.
In the meantime, the company was looking at existing buildings in Lawrence and Dunedin as possible locations to combine operations into one building.
Expansion plans were put on hold after its Lawrence warehouse was extensively damaged in June's heavy snowstorm.
Up to 60cm of snow fell in Lawrence mid-June, the record snowfall buckling roof trusses and walls and causing melted snow to pour through the company's warehouse, which is on the outskirts of Lawrence.
''The good thing is that we have come out of this warehouse disaster and are doing well.''
Sales and marketing manager Pat Robertson said the roof gave in over the weekend of June 22-23, cartons of stock holding it up in places and water ''gushing everywhere''.
A team of about eight volunteers spent most of the Saturday picking stock up off the ground until they ran out of pallets. By the following Monday, water was about 5cm deep across the entire floor of the warehouse.
Since then, 1000 pallets of stock had been transferred to one of Wickliffe's warehouses in Mosgiel. The larger warehouse in Mosgiel also gave the company the opportunity to hold more stock, Mr Robertson said.
Along with the large damaged warehouse on the outskirts of town Tuapeka, Gold Print occupies four premises in Lawrence - housing the main office, drink-ware facility, drink-ware warehouse and the main decoration and assembly compound - and now two warehouses in Dunedin.
Clutha District Council chief executive Charles Haakkart said Tuapeka Gold Print had not asked for a rates rebate, and he was unaware of the council offering anything of the sort in the past.
''Our view has always been to have the public infrastructure and amenities to encourage people to live and work in the district.''
Tuapeka Gold Print was founded in 1987 by Mr Robertson, who started printing business cards at home on the kitchen table.
It now employs 70 people, a large portion of the town's population of 400. Over recent years, the company had developed new printing technologies that allowed it to expand significantly its product range and sales.
It had also expanded sales in Australia, which were growing faster than it could ''comfortably'' handle. Mr Robertson said plans to introduce more new technology and product categories were ''severely constrained'' by the lack of space.
Tuapeka Gold Print initially focused on printing pens. By 1993, with sales of up to four million pens, it was the largest printed pen business in New Zealand.
The company also manufactures drink bottles, but buys most of its products from China before printing and distributing them through New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
