Carter Holt Harvey

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Carter Holt Harvey Limited is a privately-owned New Zealand-based company controlled by Rank Group Limited, the corporate vehicle of the country's richest man, Graeme Hart, New Zealand, the company has three main divisions: Woodproducts New Zealand and Woodproducts Australia, which are both major Australasian manufacturers of wood-based building products; and Carters, a New Zealand chain of trade-focused building supply stores.

History (1872–2005)

The company traces its history back ultimately to three namesake companies. The first of these was Robert Holt & Sons, a Napier-based company founded in 1921 (though Robert Holt's steam-powered sawmill began operations in 1872). The second was Carter Consolidated, whose sawmill ventures began under Francis Carter near Levin in 1896. Alex Harvey & Sons was the third – with humble beginnings manufacturing milk churns in Auckland.

On 1 April 1969, Alex Harvey & Sons entered a three-way merger with L.J. Fisher Co., Ltd., a steel roof tiles manufacturer, and the New Zealand activities of Australian Consolidated Industries, a diversified conglomerate. The result was Alex Harvey Industries – a sprawling corporation encompassing operations in glass, plastics, steel, wood and paper products. Meanwhile in 1971 the operations of sawmill company Robert Holt & Sons and forestry and wood-products focused Carter Consolidated merged to form a New Zealand timber giant, Carter Holt Holdings. Sir Richard Carter, a great-grandson of Carter Consolidated's founder Francis Carter, led the combined company.

In 1986, Carter Holt Harvey was formed as industrial companies Alex Harvey Industries and Carter Holt Holdings merged, resulting in one of New Zealand's largest companies – which continued to be led by Sir Francis Carter. The glass operations were divested to Australian ACI Glass. The combined company went on, five years later, to acquire the assets of far-larger New Zealand Forest Products, which was "the largest industrial undertaking in New Zealand" managing 200,000 hectares of forest land and annual sales of NZ$200,000,000 in 1981(nearly NZ$850 million in 2016). This made Carter Holt Harvey, by a comfortable margin, the largest company in New Zealand. However, with CHH burdened by debt from the massive purchase, American International Paper took the opportunity to purchase a 16% stake that year. Their stake gradually increased until a controlling interest of around 50.5% was finally acquired in 1995.

Carter Holt Harvey was listed on the New Zealand Exchange with International Paper as the controlling shareholder until 2005. The company, as of 2005, had over 10,000 staff, forestry assets, diversified wood, pulp and paper manufacturing plants and retail operations across Australasia, as well as several Chinese factories. They formerly were involved in consumer products, with leading positions in the Australasian market for: tissues and paper towels, under brands such as Purex, Sorbent and Handee; nappies, under the Treasures brand; and hygiene products such as Libra pads and Tena incontinence products (under Sancella, a 50–50 joint-venture with SCA). The consumer operations, with 2004 sales of approximately NZ$765 million, was sold to Swedish Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) for NZ$1 billion in 2004.

The then fourth-largest listed company in New Zealand by market capitalisation was taken into private hands by Rank Group Investments Limited, controlled by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart

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