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Upcoming Events
Have you got your tickets for our first Calibrate event, THIS WEEK?
Make sure to RSVP here and we’ll be sure to save you a seat!
Growing Our Own will be a chance to learn how the team at Lyttelton Engineering have developed their people. Through their apprentice training programme they’ve developed qualified and experienced staff. Their success can be seen just by looking at their own senior leadership team, which including 5 Lyttelton Engineering apprentices, with two being company directors.
Our hosts will be Richard York – General Manager, Nick Jessop – Operation Manager, & Robbie Sutton – Apprentice Mentor.
You can expect to walk away with
- Connections with manufacturers facing similar workforce challenges.
- Practical ideas for developing and retaining skilled people within your business.
- Insights into how Lyttleton Engineering has built a successful “grow your own” culture.
- Real examples of apprentices progressing into leadership roles.
- Ideas for strengthening partnerships with schools, Ara, and industry.
Our next Fireside Chat on September 14 will have Roland Sommer as a guest speaker. Many of you will remember Roland as the GM of TE Connectivity and, subsequently, CEO of Argus Group. Now Roland has moved a big step closer to professionally pursuing his passion for flying objects as the Manufacturing Manager for SPS Automation. We’ll send out full invitations for the event next Monday, but now is a good day for marking the spot in your diary: Monday, Sep. 14, 5:30 p.m.
The Canterbury Manufacturers Trust and MAKE│NZ are pleased to present an opportunity for young leaders within Manufacturing.
A relaxed, networking evening for the next generation of Canterbury manufacturing leaders &
future leaders — Chatham House Rule applies.
No sales pitches. No bosses. Just your peers — talking shop, comparing notes, and learning from
each other.
This will take place on Thursday the 17th of September, 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Little Mex Bar, 131 Victoria Street. Any emerging leaders in manufacturing, aged 25-35, are welcome! Come as you are and we’ll see you there. To RSVP and find out more information, check the pdf below
News From The World of Manufacturing
•A recent article from RNZ is headlined as: “Auckland and Canterbury university enrolments rise as trades training struggles.” and further down: “Most subject areas saw a decline in work-based EFTS between April 2025 and April 2026, with Architecture and Building (-17 percent, -706 EFTS) and Engineering and Related Technologies (-9 percent, -413 EFTS) seeing the greatest decreases,” the report said. “These subject areas accounted for 63 percent of all work-based vocational education provision April 2026, contributing to a notable impact on work-based provision”
Source: Education Counts. “Trainees are defined as non-apprentice workplace-based learners. They are trainees whose programme does not meet the New Zealand Apprenticeship level and credit criteria.”
Numbers above are based on the classification by Narrow Field of Study (NZSCED). Looking at the further breakdown into Detailed Fields of Study (NZSCED) shows that Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeships make up the majority; just over 50% of apprenticeships for both Narrow Fields of Study combined consistently fell into that Detailed Fields of Study category.
Note also that the above enrolment numbers are aggregated across cohorts. The number of graduates in any year compared to enrolments is shown below:
*Levels 3 and 4 are the most common types of certificates in both categories
•Compare these numbers to immigration statistics. MBIE doesn’t publish a complete breakdown of migrant numbers by sector; for manufacturing the numbers listed are only for primary industry processing. MBIE’s latest sector report for manufacturing from 2018 lists a rise from 2,901 in 2011 to 5,798 in 2016 for Technicians and Trade Workers in “manufacturing-related operations”.
More recently, when we look at the number of visa approvals for ANZSCO Skill Level 3 (NZQF Level 4 qualification -such as a trade certificate- or at least 3 years of relevant work experience) for Technicians and Trade Workers for the last year to June 2026 as an approximation, we see a total of 4,662 approvals, keeping in mind that we don’t know which specific industry these visa holders were employed in.
Whatever the exact numbers, the trends indicate what we see in manufacturing operations every day – for most employers, immigration is the first port of call when it comes to recruiting additional workers. That this approach is not without risk is something we’ll comment more on in next week’s Tuesday Top-Up.
Other News of Interest to Manufacturing
• Sometimes manufacturing businesses get into serious strife due to factors and developments beyond their control.
And sometimes due to poor decision making.
Two examples from Germany. The first one is a company you’re most unlikely to have heard of: EEW Group started as a small metal fabricator in 1936 and grew into a significant manufacturer of specialist pressure tanks for a range of applications. In 2008, a subsidiary called EEW Special Pipe Construction GmbH was launched, specialising in the manufacture of monopiles for wind turbines. These gigantic steel tubes, up to 150m long, 12m diameter, and almost 2,000t in weight, are used as part of the foundation of offshore wind turbine towers. Since its inception, the company has grown rapidly, employing about 1,000 people and with a market share of more than 50% of offshore wind installations in Europe.
Recently, however, things have turned against the company. The US government’s push against wind turbines has also had a negative effect on offshore generation investments in Europe and its aggressive tariffs on steel and steel products have led to Chinese competitors pushing into the European markets more aggressively. An updated EU Steel Safeguard Regulation, effective from 1 July of this year, does not apply, as monopiles are considered to be products made of steel, and thus not covered. It also appears to be unclear so far whether and to what extent the EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism [CBAM] will apply to these monopiles.
Add to that the fact that German authorities have – for the time being – ceased to issue permits for new offshore wind parks, and it’s not hard to understand why the company is in serious trouble.
The other company – beyond serious trouble and being broken up – is a household name in Germany and New Zealand alike: VARTA. The company has been in the wider battery business since 1887, but in July of this year it has applied to open insolvency proceedings under self-administration. There are several reasons for this development:
- Loss of Apple as a Key Customer: The most immediate trigger was Apple’s decision to end its collaboration with Varta and shift the production of its CoinPower button cells (used in AirPods) to Asian suppliers. This deprived Varta of a crucial anchor customer and resulted in the planned closure of its Nördlingen plant.
- Failure to Access Emergency Funding: Despite a 2024 debt restructuring which was prompted by costly bad investments and a severe February 2024 cyberattack that temporarily paralysed production, the company still carried a massive debt load. Varta required a short-term cash injection in the mid-double-digit millions to stay afloat. However, the company’s primary owners—sports car manufacturer Porsche and Austrian investor Michael Tojner—refused to pump any additional capital into the ailing business.
- Overcapacity and Weak Demand: In previous years, Varta took on debt to finance significant capacity expansions for small lithium-ion cells. When broader market conditions deteriorated, unfavorable exchange rates set in, and general demand fell short of expectations, the company was left paying for manufacturing infrastructure it no longer needed.
- Operational Inefficiencies: Company leadership admitted that Varta had become “too fat” with excessive overhead costs. Complex internal dependencies and bloated organisational structures led to slow decision-making, which hindered the company’s ability to pivot quickly during the crisis.
The insolvency proceedings primarily affect the parent company (Varta AG) and its operating units for micro-batteries and energy storage. The profitable household battery division, Varta Consumer Batteries, was legally separated and explicitly excluded from the filings. This part of the group has been taken over by a group of its creditors led by Deutsche Bank.
Fun Facts (some of them not so funny)
•One of the promises made by the current US government when it came into office was to “bring back manufacturing jobs”. And now it claims to have done so: “With President Trump’s economic agenda taking effect, the United States is seeing an economic revival across our manufacturing industry. July saw the strongest expansion in domestic manufacturing activity in more than four years, marking seven consecutive months of growth in the sector.”
When it comes to manufacturing activity, the claim looks legitimate:
When it comes to additional jobs, maybe not so much:
The improved output is focused on two sub-sectors – automotive, where high levels of tariffs on imports have led to a significant rise in domestic production. The other sub-sector – electronics is largely driven by high levels of investment in AI data centres. This is also where job growth was most noticeable. And yet, with 315,000 factory jobs lost between 2023 and 2025, do the roughly 31,000 jobs created in the first seven months of this year warrant the claim of “strongest expansion in domestic manufacturing activity in more than four years” when it comes to jobs?
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