The land and building housing the purpose-built engineering plant and offices of New Zealand’s foremost ute accessory company have been placed on the market for sale.
The 9,908-square metre property in the Waikato township of Kerepehi contains the factory, workshop, and administrative headquarters for Utemaster in a 2,520-square metre warehouse and office building.
Utemaster is New Zealand’s foremost manufacturer of commercial utility vehicle accessories, with its range of products encompassing hard-top lids, canopies, steel flat decks, removable drawer units and enclosed bodies. Over its 12-year history, Utemaster has built more than 20,000 ute accessory kits.
The company’s products are sourced by building and construction tradies, infrastructure and utility service companies, and farmers. Utemaster’s vehicle accessories are also widely found on recreational vehicles for securely transporting the likes of mountain bikes, fishing and diving gear, hunting gear, surfboards, and foil boards.
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Its products are designed and locally built to fit all major ute brands in New Zealand – including Ford, Toyota, Holden Mitsubishi, Nissan, Isuzu, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, LDV, SsangYong, Ram, and GWM.
The Utemaster headquarters property at 27-31 Reta Crescent is now being marketed for sale on June 23 through Bayleys Hamilton. Salesperson Josh Smith said that in addition to manufacturing ute accessories at the Kerepehi site, Utemaster also installed accessory units on commercial vehicle fleets.
“The state-of-the-art plant at Reta Crescent was built specifically to Utemaster’s operational requirements, and comprises a high-stud warehouse and pristine well organised factory floor area with expansive shelving and storage, along with administrative offices featuring the full suite of staff amenities for both office and factory floor personnel,” Smith said.
“With multiple roller door access points to the factory floor from the yard, the building is one of the most modern in Kerepehi. The reception area for example features black and ply industrial finishing, polished concrete flooring with carpet in the corporate spaces, expansive glass windows and partitioning.
“Fully encased by security fencing with an automated entrance gate, the main building is encircled by a sealed yard, with a further portion of the property undeveloped and currently used for customer and staff parking – ensuring more than enough additional space to handle Utemaster’s forecast production and installation expansion in future years.”
Utemaster is currently on a lease at the Reta Crescent property running through to 2025 with two further four-year rights of renewal generating annual rental income of $282,120 plus GST and operating expenses.
Kerepehi has been a ‘textbook’ example of provincial growth in New Zealand over the past decade – benefitting from its strategic location in the middle of the ‘Golden Triangle’ population catchment between Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga, being 108, 83 and 98 kilometres away respectively.
Kerepehi’s proximity to the three sizeable Golden Triangle populations has underpinned Utemaster’s customer base – both in the commercial and recreational sectors.
Hauraki District Council been proactive in promoting Kerepehi as the district’s premier industrial hub based around such founding business as the Allied Faxi ice cream plant, and log processor and distributor Pukepine – the main supplier to neighbouring business and residential dwelling timber manufacturer Pohutakawa Frames and Trusses.
Hauraki District Council invested an initial $9 million upgrading Kerepehi’s water treatment plant to accommodate the town’s industrial growth. To further attract industrial firms to the area, Hauraki District Council removed property development contribution fees - making it cheaper for developers and business owners/operators to build new premises.
Situated just off State Highway 2 in an industrial cluster, Kerepehi businesses such as Utemaster draw their labour pool from the nearby townships of Thames, Paeroa and Ngatea – all just 10-minutes’ drive away in various directions.
- Article supplied by Bayleys
