close them down<\/a>, with the loss of about 200 jobs, if a buyer cannot be found.<\/p>\nThe two-month sale period is due to end this week.<\/p>\n
Brown, a two-term former Far North mayor who already has extensive business interests in Kait\u0101ia, told RNZ he was considering buying the Triboard and Northland mills as going concerns.<\/p>\n
“I’m chewing it over, would be the best I can say at the moment. Chewing it over.”<\/p>\n
However, he said it was too early to divulge more, including who he was working with.<\/p>\n
Brown has previously developed a number of large commercial properties in the North Park area, next to the mills, and is a landlord to private businesses and government agencies.<\/p>\n
He has also developed properties in Mang\u014dnui and Kerikeri, also in the Far North.<\/p>\n
During his time as Far North mayor he revived and pushed through a stalled project to build the Te Ahu Centre, which included a library, community hall, cinema, museum and council service centre at the southern end of Kait\u0101ia.<\/p>\n
Northland MP Grant McCallum earlier told RNZ he had met a consortium of local and national investors keen to keep the mills operating, but could not say who was involved.<\/p>\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4NLHQA9_copyright_image_176969.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nKait\u0101ia’s Triboard Mill.
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Liz Garton\n<\/p>\n
When announcing its plan to exit Kait\u0101ia earlier this year, Juken NZ said the mills had been affected by declining export markets and high costs, especially electricity.<\/p>\n
The mills are also major water users, consuming about a third of Kait\u0101ia’s town supply.<\/p>\n
Juken is planning to keep its Masterton mill, which is newer and makes similar products.<\/p>\n
on Wednesday, Workers First Union organiser Marcus Coverdale warned closure of the mills would have a “devastating effect” on the town – not just on the 200 workers and their families, but also on a construction firm that used Triboard to build prefabricated homes, trucking firms, supermarkets, and every other business that relied on workers spending their wages in town.<\/p>\n
The union has called a public meeting at Te Ahu from 4.30pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Brown. Photo: NZME Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is considering coming to the rescue of Kait\u0101ia’s beleaguered timber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-437581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"NorthPark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQLINT_A_121025NZHSWBROWN07_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n