A provincial state-of-the-art purpose-built manufacturing warehouse and ultra-modern offices housing the high tech’ engineering plant 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 industrial hub of Kerepehi contains the factory, workshop, and administrative headquarters for Utemaster in a streamlined 2,520-square metre warehouse and sleek office building which belies the market-leading industrial activities of its sole tenant.

Operating for some 15-years, 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 storage and drawer units, roof racks, retractable rooftop tents, and security-focussed enclosed bodies. Utemaster is the largest employer in Kerepehi.

The company’s products are sourced by ute-driving building and construction tradies, infrastructure and utility service companies, farmers, and recreational activity participants who enjoy driving off road across the great outdoors and partaking in the likes of mountain biking, fishing, and diving, hunting, surfing, or wakeboarding.

Utemaster’s products are designed and locally built within the Kerepehi plant to fit all major utility vehicle brands in New Zealand – including Ford, Toyota, Holden Mitsubishi, Nissan, Isuzu, Mazda, Volkswagen, LDV, Chevrolet, RAM, and GWM.

The impeccably presented Utemaster headquarters property at 27-31 Reta Crescent is now being marketed for sale at auction on March 13 through Bayleys Hamilton. Salesperson Josh Smith said it was a real ‘feather in the cap’ of Kerepehi to have New Zealand’s best ute accessories manufacturing and installation companies basing itself in the Waikato.

“Utemaster’s high-tech’ plant at Reta Crescent resembles the type of manufacturing floorspace you would expect to see at somewhere like Ferrari’s formula one headquarters…. the floorspace is highly organised with precision machinery across the multitude of workstations, and is kept spotlessly clean,” he said.

“The warehousing factory and adjoining open-plan office space were specifically constructed to Utemaster’s operational requirements – comprising a high-stud warehouse, an immaculate concrete factory floor area with expansive shelving and storage, dual width/dual height roller doors, along with administrative offices featuring the full suite of staff amenities for both office and factory floor personnel,” Smith said.

“With multiple under-canopy drive through access points to the factory floor from the yard, 27-31 Reta Crescent is one of the most modern buildings in Kerepehi, and indeed the Waikato. The reception area features black 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 warehouse building is encircled by a sealed yard providing vehicle parking for both staff and customers.

Utemaster is currently on a six-year lease at the Reta Crescent property, with two further four-year rights of renewal generating annual rental income of $296,402 plus GST and operating expenses. The site is zoned for industrial use.

Hauraki District Council been proactive in promoting Kerepehi as the district’s premier industrial hub – being strategically created at the edge of the township along State Highway 2, and well away from the bigger townships of the Hauraki Plains.

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 owner/operators to build new premises.

Now, tenants and businesses around 27-31 Reta Crescent in Kerepehi include dairy products manufacturer Allied Faxi, construction and framing company Highway Engineering, trucking firm KT Cartage, mechanical repair workshop Pipiroa Motors, timber processor Pohutukawa Frame & Truss, tag manufacturer Saito Labels, animal healthcare services business Bio Start, and chiller operator Kerepehi Coolstores.

The compact industrial zone has been widely held up as a ‘model’ example of provincial growth in New Zealand – 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 – which account for more than a third of New Zealand’s population – has particularly underpinned Utemaster’s customer base in both in the commercial and recreational sectors.