Fletcher Building apologises after Gib stockpiling video emerges

Tuesday, 7 June 2022

Fletcher Building has apologised after a Canterbury builder captured video evidence of Gib stockpiling at a Fletcher Living construction site in Lincoln.

Fletcher Building has apologised after a video emerged on social media of a Fletcher Living construction site with stacks of Gib board piled outside, in violation of its own policy.

The video appears to show Fletcher Building subsidiary Winstone Wallboards had given preferential treatment to Fletcher Living, allowing it to stockpile Gib board.

Last month, Fletcher Building asked builders across Aotearoa not to order Gib plasterboard until their site was ready for it to be installed, to ensure orders could be fulfilled where needed amid the national building materials shortage.

Piles of Gib board can be clearly seen outside houses that are not ready for it to be installed in the Greenstead development in Lincoln.

However, the video of Fletcher Living’s own Greenstead development in Lincoln, southwest of Christchurch, shows piles of plastic-wrapped plasterboard stacked outside several houses that do not even have roofs on yet.

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A Fletcher spokesperson described this as a “mistake”.

The video was shot on Monday last week by a Cantabrian builder who asked Stuff not to be named for fear of “fallout” in a small industry.

Fletcher Building was chosen by Morningstar as a top pick.

The builder said that the apparent stockpiling was a “piss take”.

“Construction firms are going under left, right and centre because they can’t get materials, but here Fletcher have Gib sitting on the front lawn.”

Fletcher Living is also a subsidiary of Fletcher Building.

The builder had been unsuccessfully searching for a dozen sheets of plasterboard for a small job himself when the piles of plasterboard behind unlocked gates caught his eye, he said.

“I’ve been trying to find some for months, but I’m now looking into a different supplier,” he said.

On Tuesday, Fletcher Building released a statement, which was later described by a spokesperson as an apology, calling the piles of unused Gib a result of “a mistake and a missed communication”.

“This was an error and one we appreciate should not have occurred, especially given the current supply constraints,” they said.

“We have firmly reiterated the correct process to our team and Winstone Wallboards have made it very clear they require us to confirm our sites are ready for plasterboard installation ahead of all future deliveries.”

Have you got evidence of Gib stockpiling? Contact jonathan.killick@stuff.co.nz

A Fletcher Residential spokesperson said that the building site had suffered from delays due to the same shortage of workers and materials that the rest of the industry had been struggling with.

However, the delays were not communicated to Gib manufacturer Winstone Wallboards as they should have been, and therefore the Gib was still delivered.

They said that Fletcher Living had placed the order with Winstone Wallboards in early 2022 and had been waiting for supply across many sites.

Winstone Wallboards’ Auckland Gib factory has been working around the clock to meet demand, and the company has been produced enough board to supply 1000 homes each week, the company said.