Boise Office Solutions Depot Opening

Monday 16 February 2004

Good afternoon. I’m glad to be here to help you officially open your new $10 million centre for sales and distribution. I’m also pleased to note that you are going to help make 40 new jobs in your Christchurch customer service centre.

It is, of course, quite fitting that your biggest spend here in New Zealand so far has been here in Christchurch. You have chosen well.

Not only are we the high-tech hub for New Zealand, we are also increasingly the location of choice for firms with a taste for a great lifestyle. It's the Christchurch bonus.

It's a bit like I said to the Virgin executives when they decided to set up shop here as their head office. I told them then that they would not have trouble getting staff to move here, but a hell of a job trying to get them to move again after that. It's a story I get to hear over and over again.

Christchurch lends itself to conversion experiences. I know. I'm one myself. A student from Palmerston North who just

sort of forgot to go back there. I was also trying to remember on the way out here just how many years it is since there were all those promises that the computer age was going to lead to the paperless office. It was some time ago now. Maybe 20 or 30 years. You may also have noticed that it has not happened.

What has changed for the better is the quality of product that you can now confidently expect from suppliers. It has got faster and more responsive. As someone who likes things done yesterday, that's a good thing. I understand that that is one of the major obsessions of this company.

I also noted in the briefing papers you sent us that Boise has a strong commitment to conservation and managing natural resources for the benefit of the future. This too makes you a good fit for Christchurch.

One of the great things we have managed to get done in recent years is to turn this into a triple bottom line city. It is still not well appreciated that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, corporate entity in the South Island is the Christchurch City Council.

Our political and economic clout with our decisions is significant. We have made a decision that every major decision has to be measured against the triple bottom line, for its economic, social and environmental impacts. It was a major change in how we do business.

I am delighted to welcome the expansion of another major corporate who share our commitment to the future.

I hope you all come to enjoy Christchurch as much as I do.