Fletcher Building

Fletcher Building Limited is one of the largest listed companies in New Zealand, with a market capitalisation of nearly NZ$4 billion.[2] The company was split from Fletcher Challenge in 2001, formerly New Zealand's largest business and multinational.

Structure and divisions

With around 14,000 employees globally and over 34 business units operating under the Fletcher Building banner, the company is Australasia's largest building materials supplier. Andrew Reding started as Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in August 2024.

The company operates in six divisions: building products, distribution, concrete, residential and development, construction, and Australia.[3]

Distribution

Fletcher's retail operations date back to its first building supply site in Dunedin in 1910.[4]

History

SkyCity Convention Centre Fire

The New Zealand International Convention Centre fire occurred on 22nd of October 2019 when cardboard below the roofing cap sheet began smoldering after being ignited by a worker's blowtorch.[11] The resulting fire engulfed much of central Auckland, closing the entire Sky City precinct including the Sky Tower, and left four people injured due to the fire and billowing smoke. The fire had a major impact on Fletcher Building which may ultimately be difficult to fully quantify with costs estimated in the hundreds of millions, and ultimately precipitated Fletcher Building discontinuing their 'verticals' arm of Fletcher Construction.[12]

In early June 2025, the SkyCity Entertainment Group sued Fletcher Building and its sister company Fletcher Construction for the sum of NZ$330 million on the grounds that the companies had taken ten years instead of three years to build the New Zealand International Convention Centre at SkyCity Auckland. SkyCity sought damages for losses incurred by the company caused by ongoing delays from the completion of the project, including damages resulting from the New Zealand International Convention Centre fire in 2019. In response, Fletcher Building said that it rejected breaching its contract with SkyCity and would contest the lawsuit.[13]

COVID-19 pandemic

In April 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, Fletcher Building senior executives had their salaries cut by 30%. The cut was part of a pay-plan suggested by the company to deal with financial impacts. Under the plan, non-working staff would receive a 35% pay cut, which would increase to 50% in May and 70% in June.[14]

On 20 May, Fletcher Building announced its intention to lay off about 1000 staff in New Zealand, or approximately 10 percent of its workforce, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[15]

On 11 August, it was reported that Fletcher Building was expecting a loss of NZ$196 million for the year to June 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[16]

2021–22 plasterboard shortage

In response to a nationwide shortage of plasterboards (gib), Fletcher began rationing plasterboard orders in February 2022. By that time, the company controlled 94% of New Zealand's gib market, which had earlier triggered a Commerce Commission probe in November 2021 into whether Fletcher was blocking competitors from entering the New Zealand market.[17] The Commerce Commission's investigation would also investigate the perceived lack of competition within the New Zealand residential building competition and whether the cost of building materials was too high.[18] By May 2022, the plasterboard shortage had caused significant delays to building projects across New Zealand. The shortage of building supplies and construction delays also forced at least 12 companies including Christchurch building firm Maxim towards insolvency.[19] The shortage had forced builders and retailers including Bunnings to explore alternative plasterboard sources from overseas including China as well as domestic competitor Elephant Plasterboard.[20]

In early June 2022, Fletcher Building after video footage emerged that its subsidiary Winstone Wallboards had given another subsidiary Fletcher Living preferential access to its gib-board supplies.

type	Public
traded as	nzx: FBU asx: FBU
foundation	2001
location city	Auckland
location country	New Zealand
key people	Andrew Reding (CEO)
area served	New Zealand, Australia, Americas, Pacific Islands, Asia, Europe, Africa
industry	Construction
products	Building products
services	Construction
revenue	NZ$9,004 million [FY2016]‡R1R‡
num employees	Approx 14,000 globally
subsid	Fletcher Construction PlaceMakers
homepage	fletcherbuilding.com