Gypsum industry news

New Zealand: Fletcher Building announced the retirement of its chief executive officer Ross Taylor on 14 February 2024. As part of a board renewal review, chair Bruce Hassall will also leave. Fletcher Building’s People and Remuneration Committee chair, non-executive director Barbara Chapman, will lead the search process for replacements. Handovers are scheduled to take place in October 2024.

The producer said “The board thanks Bruce and Ross for their leadership and contribution since 2017. During this period, they have led the turnaround of Fletcher Building, which has seen the core businesses becoming more focussed and profitable, with improved earnings, margins and returns.”

China: Yau Woon Foong has resigned as an independent director of Sincap Group. His stated reason was, ‘…to pursue other interests.’ Sincap Group mines and sell gypsum in China as well as trading alumina and thermal coal.

Australia/New Zealand: The Australian and New Zealand chiefs of Knauf's wallboard operations have resigned. Additionally, the New Zealand business is under review, having posted a loss in its first nine months of operations.

The head of the New Zealand wallboard unit, John Russ, has confirmed to local media that he has resigned and will leave the company in two weeks. Meanwhile Mark Norris, managing director of Knauf Plasterboard in Australia, resigned with immediate effect on 6 November 2014.

Knauf has struggled to gain traction in the New Zealand building market, which is dominated by Fletcher Building and it took Knauf longer than expected to gain approval for its products from BRANZ, a local independent research and testing institute, before it could start to sell to consumers. Even then, the company said that it faced resistance getting its products into stores, which had established relationships with Fletcher.