Climate powder coating on MDF a winner.

Entrepreneurial company Climate has scored third in this year's Deloitte / Unlimited Fast 50 index for the fastest growing companies in New Zealand. A large part of Climate's success has been the growing demand in Australia for the powder coated MDF panel known as element™.

Climate was set up as one of Carter Holt Harvey's new ventures in 2001 and has established a reputation for its revolutionary way of powder coating wood-based products. Climate Managing Director Guy Wills reveals the company has put considerable effort into R&D and in the past 18 months alone has received $NZ1 million from Technology New Zealand for research and development in this specialized field. The goal has been to create high performance interior and exterior coating systems that move wood fibre based substrates into new market spaces and provide considerable competitive advantage for partners.

'We've put an enormous effort into the fundamentals of the business and created a pipeline of next-generation products," Wills states. "To be fair we feel that our real growth stage is starting now. We live and breathe innovation - it's just a part of everyday life."

A key part of Climate's growing success is element™, a medium density fibreboard (MDF) panel, powder coated with Climate technology. Individual powder particles are thermally fused to the board creating a tough, distinctively attractive surface that won't delaminate from heat or moisture. Element™ is making strong inroads as a eco-friendly decorative surface for residential cabinetry in unit development and in the retail fit-out industry, where the ability to create your own version of element through a customised colour service is proving invaluable for creating consistent corporate colour branding in retail environments. Available in a range of stock metallic finishes, designer solid colours or customized surface solutions throughout Australia from distributors Gunnersen Timbermark.