NZ Panels Group is making some key changes to the business, to make it easier for its customers to do business.
"As the company has grown and added more brands and products, customers have told us its been harder to deal with us, with too many points of contact in an overly complex structure," said chief executive Nigel Rigby.
"As a result, we're now embarking on a change project to put our customers back at the very centre."
Over the coming months the following changes will occur.
All Sales and Customer Service teams (except Dezignatek & Mercer plumbing sales) will be aligned under one brand which is NZ Panels Group.
"That means customers will have just one sales account manager who can manage all the products they buy from us. There will be just one Customer Service team to deal with our panel, benchtop and flooring products,"he said.
In time, the Impey's and Anthony Shearer brands (our joinery merchants) will disappear. Dezignatek and Mercer will continue to operate as they are with their own Sales and Customer Service teams.
As part of the improved customer focus a new NZ Panels Group website will be developed with all brands and products in one place. More customers will be encouraged to place orders online - and track their order delivery status.
"We'll be applying a more intense focus to our stock and manufacturing processes to ensure we can get product to customers faster - wherever they are located.
"Over the coming months we'll update customers on any changes that will impact them directly," he said.
In 2017 Mercer Interiors became Acero and four years later was bought by NZ Panels Group. At that time Acero included the Wilsonart HPL and Durasein solid acrylic brands which are now fully integrated into NZ Panels Group. So we decided it was high time to say goodbye to the Acero brand and revert back to Mercer.
From now the Mercer website can be found at mercermade.co.nz. All email addresses for the Mercer team have changed from @acero.co.nz to @mercermade.co.nz.
And don't worry - if you do use the acero.co.nz website or an acero email address, it will automatically be diverted to Mercer.
You might not be aware that Mercer is not only New Zealand's top selling brand of stainless sinks but its origins go back an impressive 140 years to 1884 when it was established as a metal manufacturer in Christchurch. Now the Mercer brand includes a wide range of sinks, taps and accessories along with commercial washroom products.
Our Kopine particleboard flooring plant is now back online after a major plant shut for a six-week refurbishment which saw a replacement of the bolsters and a major upgrade across all aspects of the production line.
The changes also coincided with a move to more fully control our fibre supply, with shavers installed on-site so Kopine can produce its own fibre using an FSC-timber source from a neighbouring forestry.
The Kopine plant is now making Ultralock and T&G flooring in good volumes after a difficult decision to halt all production in late 2023 due to fibre supply issues.
The plant also produces high quality 16mm and 18mm particleboard as a substrate to be used for both Bestwood Melamine and Prime Melamine panels.
Kopine has a long-standing reputation for making very high quality particleboard and has Environmental Choice NZ accreditation, providing valuable points for Greenstar and Homestar projects.
In the latter stage of 2024, Prime Stone switched five of its low-silica designs into zero-silica and has another five due in the first half of this year.
The remaining composite stone range is low-silica with independent tests showing that all designs, with one exception, tested under 20% - and a few as low as 9%.
This puts all Prime Stone decors firmly within the range of granite silica levels and makes them a substantially safer option.
With the arrival of new designs Mont Blanc and Osmosis late in 2024, the range refresh has now been completed, which saw 11 new additions and a move to a five-tier pricing strategy to provide more options.
The entire Prime Stone low-silica range has Declare Certification which helps contribute points to Greenstar and Homestar projects.
We're pleased introduce an innovative bendable panel range called Swurves™. Swurves is a much more cost-effective and easy way to achieve fluted curved panels than the more traditional and time-consuming joinery options.
Swurves have thermoformed vinyl on the face and all four edges of a 4mm MDF, making them ultra lightweight and offering the ultimate flexibility for interior projects. They’re suitable for a wide range of applications including kitchen cabinetry, island units, vanities, furniture, and retail fit-outs.
There are five contemporary profile options available. Swurves Prague is a perfect complement to the current Dezignatek fluted Prague door profile while Swurves Rangitoto offers a classic look with a 15mm repeat half rounds. Swurves Sefton offers a smaller scale alternative with a 10mm repeat. Swurves Taranaki has an eye-catching 6mm flat top ridge and Swurves Tasman is in the same style but with narrower ridges and valleys.
There are more than 40 colours to choose from in the Dezignatek colour range, making it easy to match your Swurves with any of our thermoform profile doors. Thermoformed Swurves have a 10-year warranty.
Swurves profiles can also be supplied unsanded on 4mm MDF. These must be painted after fixing with a suitable coating system and a seven year warranty applies to raw Swurves supplied for painting.
Easy to install, Swurves panels can be made to a maximum size of 2400mm x 1200mm. The minimum convex radius is 100-150mm and minimum concave radius is 150-200mm depending on design. All profiles have a square edge. They are not self-supporting or structural and must be fixed to a pre-constructed curved form made from Thinline MDF or bendy ply. More detailed information and advice on installation can be found on the Swurves Technical Data Sheet.
Dezignatek's parent company, NZ Panels Group, has a goal to recycle all materials that can be, while phasing out non-recyclable alternatives.
Central to the waste reduction strategy is a concerted effort to educate staff on the importance of minimising waste, encouraging them to explore innovative ways to re-cycle and upcycle materials and find better packaging solutions.
As a result, staff have developed some impactful ways to do just that. Spare space on the thermoform door press is being used to make small-scale door samples for joiners, designers and architects. Any leftover vinyl is then sent off to be recycled into gumboots, hoses, mudflaps and plumbing pipes.
Dezignatek also introduced an initiative to make dunnage using wood offcuts from CNC machines. The dunnage is used between pallets to protect products during transportation and to date, has successfully diverted 47 tonnes of waste from landfill. Additionally, the company has begun collecting and re-using dunnage from select Auckland-based clients, further helping waste reduction.
Traditional plastic wrap has been swapped for innovative Purewrap which is a plant-based plastic wrap made from sustainably-grown sugar cane and is carbon negative. It also can be recycled along with other soft plastics. For every ton of Purewrap produced, a staggering 2.80 tonnes of CO2 are removed from the atmosphere. In stark contrast, traditional plastic wrap emits 1.66 tonnes of CO2 per ton. On top of the swap, the amount of wrap being used has dropped by over 50%.
Empowering employees to explore creative solutions and embrace sustainability has clearly created a strong culture of responsibility when it comes to waste management and this is just the start.
Nine of our stunning new Prime Stone designs have now landed and we have a few more coming mid-year.
With the most popular existing designs being retained but moved into low-silica formulations, the entire range is now a composite low-silica using a mix of recycled glass, glass sand and quartz. Silica levels are below 30% on most designs, making it comparable to granite.
With the addition of new designs, we've ditched our previous collection names and the Prime Stone low silica range is all shown together. New pricing categories replace the collection names - 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.
When you click on a stone swatch, you can identify if the design can be supplied with a mirror image slab, and also if it is a digital print which a few of our new designs are.
Our digital prints use the same technology as Porcelain benchtop products, offering precision and clarity when replicating marble and granite. However, unlike porcelain which has only white, grey or black options for the edge, the digital print edge for our composite low-silica stone is a similar colour to the top of the slab, making the contrast less obvious. In some cases light veining can be seen, but this is not an exact match to the top. Digital prints are only in 20mm and slabs can be mitred to retain the classic veining from benchtop through the edge.
Many of our veined designs are also available as mirror slabs, making it easier to achieve an attractive right-angle join either vertically or horizontally where veining can
be matched up.
Our showroom at Residium in Auckland now has all the new designs on display with our gorgeous Olympia (above) featuring on the benchtop above the stone display drawers. The drawers now contain 500 x 500mm size slabs of each new design. The stunning Calacatta Gold can be seen on the benchtop in the Dezignatek showroom adjacent to the main showroom area.
The entire low-silica range has Declare accreditation, making it useful for projects in the Living Building Challenge.
Note that Prime Stone is only supplied to to fabricators operating within the Worksafe RCS guidelines within a controlled wet-cutting environment with proper PPE and extraction systems - these are audited by IMPAC.
Showcasing the best of the best, the NZ Panels Group’s three showrooms at Residium in Parnell features products from its Bestwood, Prime Panels, Dezignatek, Ultraglaze, Wilsonart, Durasein and Mercer brands.
NZ Panels Group showroom
You can view the full showroom layout here.
The first and largest showroom you enter has a wall of angled panels on the left showing off large format melamine designs from Prime Panels and Bestwood. Further along the same wall are pressed high-pressure laminate panels with designs from global brand Wilsonart and Prime Laminate.
To the right is an inspiration wall featuring moodboards with a combination of our products and photographs of some of our recent projects.
The main island benchtop features new low-silica composite stone from Prime Stone and the drawers underneath contain large format samples of the latest releases and most popular designs.
To the back of the island is wall to ceiling cabinetry in Ultraglaze Acrylic paired with Prime Melamine French Oak while the rotating fins feature beautiful veneer panels from Prime and Bestwood, and an adjacent feature wall of oak veneer showing the various options of Prime Art Veneer or natural American Oak veneer.
Dezignatek showroom
Walk through from the NZ Panels Group showroom into a refreshed Dezignatek showroom. This now shows off the new Swurves curvable fluted panels on the island unit, and on the right-hand wall are door samples of all the most requested thermoform door profiles. A mix of Ranfurly Oak and Pistachio is used on the main cabinetry at the back along with a tall Lyon profile door.
Mercer and Durasein showroom
Made right here in New Zealand, Mercer stainless sinks are on display along with a range of granite and coloured stainless sinks and a range of contemporary tapware. Durasein solid acrylic surface features on the cabinetry with pull-out drawers showing large format samples of all 24 colours.
Pop-up space
Within Residium we have an additional area away from our main showroom which displays our Prime Adorno Wall panels – a selection of eight pre-primed panels that will transform any wall or can be used for under-bench areas, bedheads and part-walls. This area also contains 10 mobile displays featuring large panels of our Prime Toitū Veneer which have all been finished with a clear coat. Please ask Residium staff for directions to this area.
Residium showroom open seven days
All NZ Panels Group products can be viewed seven days with Residium operating 9am to 5pm weekdays, 10am-5pm Saturday and 10am-4pm Sunday. Ample parking is available on Level 2 of their showroom at 165 The Strand, Parnell. The friendly team at Residium can supply product brochures on request, but samples for all our products along with brochures can be ordered from any of our product websites.
Bestwood introduce four new melamine colours, designed to work with the recently released Bestwood Vancouver Larch and Alberta Larch woodgrains, providing a great way to achieve a cool mid-century vibe.
Pistachio in a soft pastel green tone, allows for striking design combinations with mid-toned or dark neutrals, as well as other pale tones. Whether paired with dark or light woodgrains, its earthy green hue is calm and inviting.
Cirrus and Shroom are both timeless neutral shades, offering a classic touch that seamlessly integrates with various home interior styles. The soft neutral tones help create welcoming spaces, effortlessly complementing woodgrains and other colours to achieve a modern or classic aesthetic.
Wolfram, an intensely dark chocolate brown, with a hint of grey, adds richness to the palette and provides a great contrast for pops of bright colour or for woodgrains. The deep brown tones introduce dimension and emanate warmth and coziness. Its versatility suits various styles, from traditional to modern.
1mm ABS edgetape is available now with laser edging being introduced in a few months.
All four new colours are available offered in five finishes – Velvet, Embossed, Woodgrain, Wilderness, and Timberland™.
Engineered to withstand life's challenges, Bestwood Melamine comes with a 10-year warranty and holds Eco Choice Aotearoa certification, meaning valuable points for Homestar and Greenstar projects.
After two years of intensive research and preparation, planting has finally begun to restore Taminelli Creek, a beautiful Kahikatea swamp forest near Hokitika that needed some weeding, planting and love. The forest has suffered from logging and grazing and is needing significant work to reunite the fragmented ecosystem and restore its natural vitality.
In 2021, NZ Panels Group, under the leadership of Sustainability Manager Zyran Scharf, embarked on a major project to restore the creek area in partnership with the Department of Conservation. With only 2% of Kahikatea forests and 10% of wetlands in New Zealand remaining, the investment in the restoration project reflects the company's commitment to mitigating the ecological impact of historical logging, taking proactive steps to safeguard New Zealand's environment for future generations.
In just two days this month, the team planted 1,300 Kahikatea trees and 600 mixed species, including Cabbage tree, Manuka, and Coprosma. Donated, reusable plastic sleeves are being used to protect the trees, a practice that will be continued.
The project covers a total area of 1,347 hectares, with the planting area encompassing approximately five hectares divided into six main sections. Over the next two years, the project's scope will expand, with plans to plant around 2,000 trees per area, primarily Kahikatea, and continue this effort over the coming years.
Back in 2021 when the project began, the first step was to partner with the Canterbury School of Forestry and enlist a final-year dissertation student. Zy and the student spent a month traversing the entire forest, often wading through knee-deep water, to document every plant and animal species. This resulted in a 40-page plan providing the foundation for the project's restoration strategy.
Once a list of suitable plant species was established, primarily Kahikatea with a few other native species, the next challenge was to source them from the local area. This process, known as eco-sourcing, is critical as locally sourced species tend to be better adapted to the environment and have higher survival rates.
The project team discovered a reliable local nursery, Tekuku, which collected seeds from the site and began the slow growth process, assisting with planting. Another nursery that had also eco-sourced seeds from the same area and nurtured the seedlings for two years was found. This ensured that the project could commence once the seedlings had reached a sufficient size.
During the initial phase, it was essential to restore fencing around the site to prevent neighbouring cattle from entering the forest, to ensure natural regeneration and protecting the newly planted trees. As the grassy weeds grew, it became clear that the cows were inadvertently helping to control them. This led to the use of a digger to flip the soil, eliminating the weeds and providing a clear, albeit muddy, canvas for planting.
Although it's early days for this ambitious project, Zy is optimistic that the area will one day reasonate to native birdsong and be fully restored to its native glory.