Ohinewai dreams ahead: The Sleepyhead plan that will change a Waikato town

Thursday, 21 November 2019

Ohinewai, North Waikato: home to a small school, community hall, a few shy houses dotted on the quiet rural roads. It's five kilometres north of Huntly, east of the Waikato River, partly bending itself around Lake Waikare. In the next 5-10 years the settlement will transform if The Comfort Group's plan succeeds to build an entirely new community, including a massive Sleepyhead manufacturing hub and 1100 homes for 3000 new residents. Ellen O'Dwyer meets some of the people whose lives will soon be changed. 

Three guys from Huntly clamber out of bed and into a white minibus at 4.30am.

They're on the road out of town in pitch darkness. 

At this point, Ohinewai is just another footnote off State Highway One, its white sign barely glimpsed through the dawn gravel rush to Auckland.

Five weeks into a new job at Sleepyhead's Otahuhu factory and it's gruelling hours for Joseph O'Conner​, Taonga Kani and Edward Watene.

**READ MORE:

* Sleepyhead signs agreement with Waikato-Tainui

* Waikato District Council's deputy mayor wants climate change on the agenda

* Affordable housing and 1500 jobs planned for Sleepyhead Waikato 'town'

* Employment boom in Waikato as businesses spring up**

Twelve hours a day (including travel) between Monday-Thursday, a 3pm clock-off on Friday and half day on Saturday at a starting pay rate of minimum wage.

All three are in the throes of on-the-floor-training: O'Conner works in the bed base department, Kani is on springs and Watene on mattresses. 

By the time they return from work, the sun's setting on the town and they're dropped back at their front doors by 7.30pm. 

'We look a bit like zombies by the end of the week,' Watene jokes.

'Yeah, but you can have a sleep on the way there, get back on the bus and have another sleep on the way home,' O'Conner says, chuckling.

'It's tough, but you just gotta take it as it comes.'

Watene, Kani and O'Conner are the first intakes of an arrangement between Waikato-Tainui's economic development arm Te Riu o Waikato and The Comfort Group. 

There's about eight of them that have got work in the Otahuhu factory and who commute from Huntly each day.

All staff have been referred from the Ministry of Social Development, who provide the transport to reach South Auckland.

At the moment it's seasonal work (Summer's the busy season for beds) but the hope roles will become permanent in preparation for Sleepyhead moving to Ohinewai. 

Today they've clocked off early and the white minibus pulls into a carpark in Huntly West at 4pm. 

Stepping out in blue overalls and black boots, time to stretch the legs and stop for a smoke.

O'Conner is one of the older ones, tattoos on the arms, a little grey poking through the beard. He wears a camo polyfleece and a friendly smile. 

He was looking after the grandkids for a couple of years while his partner worked, but when this opportunity came up he threw himself into it.

'I've got some good foremans, it's like a big family there - we've met guys who have been there forty years, and the bosses have already come around to meet us.'

'Sleepyhead are not just looking out for number one you know, they're trying to look after everyone.

'At least they're bringing some more opportunities into Waikato.'

Watene switched jobs when he heard about Sleepyhead's plans to relocate to Waikato.

He nods determinedly when asked whether he wants a chance to own one of the Sleepyhead homes one day. 

It's what drives him out of bed in the near-middle of the night.

'I was working somewhere else before, it was higher pay but I left when I heard about the company moving to Ohinewai,' he says. 

'Yeah the travelling's hard sometimes, but we've just gotta ride this wave out for now.' 

Sleepyhead's ambitious vision

A billion-dollar investment on 176 hectares of farmland for an industrial hub, factories, retail outlets and a housing community complete with petrol station, tennis courts and wetlands, which Sleepyhead says will create 1500 jobs. 

A pedestrian and cycleway is designed to connect the hub across the interchange to Ohinewai School, and the company hopes to reinstate Ohinewai Train Station with a potential service to Hamilton and Auckland.

The primary school currently has 150 pupils but is expected to grow to more than 400, requiring at least 10 new classrooms and a number of new teachers. 

The man tasked with heading the nuts and bolts of the project is David Gaze. 

If all goes to plan, this will be a 'massive' infrastructural challenge, he says. 

Transportation upgrades, water discharge infrastructure, ecological protection and flood modelling is currently being looked at by Gaze Consulting and by Hamilton planning company Bloxam, Burnett and Olliver. 

The current timeline is for the foam factory to be opened by November 2021 and construction to begin on houses by April 2022. 

There are many resource consents, including consents for stages of earthworks and building consents for a 18,000 square metre foam factory and bigger 100,000 square metre factory. 

But the company's re-zoning request, to change the land from rural to industrial, residential and commercial, is the most important.

If that's not accepted, the company have the option to change their plans or walk away entirely. 

Gaze said nobody knows what the outcome of that request will be, all the team can do is put their best case forward to Waikato District Council.

Down home in Ohinewai

A pair of black gumboots show signs of life on an airless summer evening in Ohinewai.

Around the corner, the school's still - no students left knocking the high jump bar down in the paddock.

A dilapidated looking restaurant, once the local grocer's, sits idly as its scratched red and grey paint fades in the heat.

But the community hall is thriving tonight, where Sleepyhead's consultants are holding a public meeting to discuss plans. 

Maps showing transport, ecology, wastewater infrastructure and housing plans line the walls. 

Locals mill around in groups chatting about the plans, and there's a low level buzz in the room.

One man in earshot says: 'this is what progress looks like, isn't it?'

'I'm just looking forward to the coffee shop,' another points out.

We have to go all the way to Huntly or Te Kauwhata, or sometimes even Hamilton, for a decent coffee, he sighs.  

'Ohinewai needs a bit more life.'

Lifelong resident Malcolm Lumsden remembers his childhood in the area as 'paradise'. 

His parents bought land in Ohinewai in 1929, and since his birth in 1946, he has lived on that same farm on Lumsden Rd. 

While Ohinewai was never a big town, Lumsden recalls two grocery stores, a post office and a butcher, as well as the Community Hall and primary school. 

People travelled to Huntly for anything they couldn't get in Ohinewai.

'Huntly's dead now, but when I was growing up it had every service you needed: hardware stores, department shops, pubs, everything.

Life on the farm was hard yakka but brought a sense of freedom: 'you had to make your own fun in the country, and we did', Lumsden says.

Certain hardships created adventure, when the big flood came in '59, Lumsden and his friends canoed down the flooded plains for hours. 

Experience of the flood risk means Lumsden is cautious about the land Sleepyhead is building on. 

'I'm not concerned that it's happening, but I'm concerned where it's happening. There's a heap of coal under the land here, but not a lot of solid material on top of the coal. It's a swamp.'

'They'll need to build up the land about one metre and a half apparently. 

'My attitude is, if they can get a consent then they have the right to do it.'

If that paperwork comes through, the place he's known inside and out will radically change - but he's philosophical about it.  

'Ohinewai won't be Ohinewai anymore, it may improve it, that's judging the future and you can't do that.

'Quite frankly I'm not bothered about it. I've learned all through life you just have to accept what comes.'

Change 'inevitable'

Huntly Community Board and Ohinewai Area Committee member David Whyte says he believes most of the community is 'cautiously optimistic' about the industrial estate.

'If it's done well, and it turns out like their vision, it will be a blessing for Ohinewai and blessing for Huntly,' he says.

'If it's done poorly, then it could be a s…ole. But on paper it looks good.'

Whyte, who lives with his family on a bountiful fruit farm, moved to Ohinewai partly due to Hamilton's expensive housing and partly to get away from neighbours. 

But he's realised that with Ohinewai's prime location - the combination of SH1, the railway line, the affordable land - development and change was likely inevitable.

He's heard the difference between the price of land per square metre in Auckland is $300, while in Ohinewai it's $5. 

Land affordability is something Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson believes will draw other businesses to North Waikato.

'I think it's the start of what we will see happening in the area. Other manufacturers are already looking at the development and want to come on board too.'

Sleepyhead were definite right from the start they wanted to settle in Ohinewai: north of Te Kauwhata was too expensive and further south would not work logistically, Sanson said.

'Sleepyhead have really taken the bull by the horns on this project, and it's fair to say the financial sector see this as a really great move.'

Turner's goal: re-invigorating NZ manufacturing

Comfort Group director Craig Turner said they chose little-known Ohinewai partly due to restrictions in Auckland: the business was struggling to expand due to space constrictions and staff were getting difficult to find.

'When we looked at why it was difficult to get staff the answer ended up being the high cost of living and housing in Auckland.'

He believes every one of his staff should be able to own their own home. 

Turner says he and co-director brother Graeme aspire to reinvigorate the manufacturing industry in New Zealand.

'My brother [Graeme], the rest of our family and myself are mad passionate kiwis. We believe we are incredibly fortunate to live in an amazing country. The country has been incredibly kind to us as a family and as a business.

'We've respected New Zealand and New Zealand's respected us. 

'But we see the country struggling going forward with youth, and we see the country struggling with manufacturing.

'One of the biggest problems with manufacturing is we just don't have the skilled people to do the jobs, so manufacturing stops manufacturing and it goes away.

'We are saying that's not good enough and New Zealand can be a fantastic manufacturing county going forward, and bring industry back to New Zealand.'

Turner wants to build a training facility on site in the community, where local school leavers can be trained up. 

There are challenges, he says, he's heard about the concerns over the land type but says it will be built up about one metre and a half through dynamic compaction, as was done a lot in Dubai.

He bats away criticisms the project is wholly commercial, insisting he wants to establish a community in Ohinewai where staff can 'live, eat, work, breathe and enjoy'.

It seems like nothing can deter him. 

'You know what? I don't know why you wouldn't do it.

'I'm 66 years old, I've been asking myself why has it taken me 66 years to realise what a fabulous opportunity this could be to co-invest with money and time in the asset that's most important to business, which is really your people.'