Punching Above Our Weight. Taking New Zealand Clear pine to a Global Market

New Zealand businesses are renowned for finding niche global markets and servicing them well. With a population of just over five million, Kiwis have always looked beyond their shores for opportunities to expand product offering.

Timber is something we do particularly well. For a small country in the southern hemisphere New Zealand harvested 32 million cubic metres of timber in2024 with $5.89 billion revenue from exported timber products.

Genia, like many other main players in the timber industry have looked outward for decades, to find opportunities where craftsmanship and reliability are of more importance than volumes.  Our reputation in the custom Clear Pine mouldings market is something we are proud of.

NZ plantation Clear pine has a global reputation

New Zealand clear pine is internationally renowned for its smooth finish, strength and workability. It accepts paint well and being a softwood, it has superior machining qualities. Although the finished product holds its own in terms of global reputation, delivering it around the world is just as important.

We have refined every step of the process, from sourcing sustainable plantation pruned timber to delivering retail ready finished mouldings in their specific market. Supplying mouldings may appear straight forward from the outside, but behind the scenes it’s the result of years of being congruent with our key operational values –of continuous improvement, adding value and innovation.

Since the first export container left our port, we have focused on building a team that are capable of meeting deadlines without sacrificing quality.

Genia is agile.

We compete in an industry where timber producers are volume driven. We have often discovered although many large overseas suppliers can produce product; the volumes they are asked for are not appealing to their business model.

This is where Genia holds it’s own. Although we a smaller business by comparison to larger players in the timber industry, even in the New Zealand market, we still employ over 120 staff and run over 16 million lineal metres of pine products annually. 500 containers leave our South Island based operation every year destined for international markets, with clear pine mouldings being a large percentage of the payload.

Production scheduling has always been the focal point in the export process. Producing four to six containers of custom clear mouldings for a specific client requirement is where we excel. Customised software has been key to plotting throughput down to the minute along with experienced people that have been with the company since inception that know the capability of our production units inside out.

Sourcing, optimising and profiling

Timber arrives at Genia’s processing plant as sawn boards. We have worked with sawmills over the years and developed strong relationships to ensure reliable supply. Our requirements are well recognised around the country as a consistent customer for supply of both low grade and high-grade feed stock.

Like every player in the timber remanufacturing industry, yield is where you can make or break a business – what you get out of your feed stock will ultimately determine price to the customer, so efficiency s important to maintain a competitive edge.

Optimising is a vital part of our process, with production efficiency over the years invested in heavily, fine tuning to produce superior grade products. Clear wood is simply just that, devoid of knots, resin pockets and waned edges. We have invested in optimising machinery and expertise to do this and by carefully balancing this with efficient speed while still maintaining quality, we have become one of the leading producers of clear pine mouldings in New Zealand.

On the outside looking in, profiling seems like a simple process. Knives are shaped to the timber profile and the timber is passed through the production line. On the inside however, this process hasbeen polished over the years, with profiling refined through trial runs and stringent quality control before a profile is added to our library. Although a custom profile will require new tooling we draw on our experience with similar profiles to enable us to adhere to efficient machining time, yield, and ultimately– quality.

Partnerships vs transaction

Behind every business that caters to niche markets, someone had to find the market in the first place. The sales team at Genia have been to all corners of the world, finding customers that are a good fit for the business. The feedback about NZ Clear Wood has always been positive with many of the potential procurement teams we visit already aware of the product. Getting it to their stores is another story. Since the early 90’s reliability has been the number one service we have sold.

We have put in the hard yards to gain customer’s confidence. In turn that has given us the confidence to advertise openly that we are reliable, and we focus on relationship building, rather than just selling.

A successful collaboration starts with understanding what the client actually requires — not just what’s on the order form. We’ve found that good communication early on saves time and cost later. The more we understand about how a product will be used or presented, the better we can tailor the product to suit the market. With pine mouldings that ultimately end up in a retail environment, product presentation and ease at point of sale is what sells. Barcoding, bundling and how the product is stored and displayed are key touchpoints in the discussions.

Trust is crucial. When clients know we’ve got the details covered — from dimensions, volumes through to packaging and freight — they can focus on their business while we handle the logistics. Over time, we have built real partnerships, it’s always been more than just transactions. Maintaining the relationship means we touch base regularly, including in person - wherever our clients are in the world.

That’s what makes selling clear pine mouldings fulfilling for both parties.

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