Some of the natural compounds we extract from pine trees do have a strong odour – but the fact you can smell something does not mean it is toxic to human health or our environment. Both pine oil and myrcene (both of which are produced by Lawter NZ) are highly fragrant and key ingredients in many products for that very reason.

All of our products are produced and stored in a safe, secure manner. Some of the naturally occurring compounds are sold in their crude form whilst others are further processed into value added products.

As part of our operations, Lawter stores and processes a range of chemicals, some of which are classified as hazardous substances. A large proportion of these chemicals are classed as flammables, but no significant amount of toxic materials are used or stored on site.

All materials are safely stored and handled in such a way as to minimise risk to our own staff and the general public.

These are our fractionation plants which separate out the different natural compounds found in the pine tree by heating and distilling the vapours.

The group of large columns surrounded by red steel framing is where we process crude tall oil (by the way, 'tall' means 'pine' in Swedish). This plant operates 24/7 and runs approximately 8000 hours per year. We use hot oil heated to 350°C during the distillation process which is why you can see so many pipes surrounding each column. We continuously feed crude tall oil in and extract many different compounds including fatty acids, pitch, and rosin - the latter is further refined into multiple products.

The single stand-alone column off to one side is our crude turpentine fractionation plant. We use steam to heat and extract alpha and beta pinene from which myrcene, pine oil and dipentene are manufactured.

You will often see steam vapours emanating from around the site.

No. The log yard is an entirely separate site and business. Our raw ingredients (crude tall oil and crude turpentine) are collected at Tokoroa and Kawerau's pulp and paper mills and are trucked to Lawter NZ in road tankers. We do not handle or process logs on site.

Our site was originally chosen because of its proximity to the Port of Tauranga – 95% of our products are exported. It was also considered a good 'halfway point' between Tokoroa and Kawerau's pulp and paper mills where our raw ingredients are sourced.

New Zealand's pulp and paper mills have two options to dispose of their by-products – burn it, or process it. The natural compounds that can be extracted from these materials are highly sought after and are key ingredients in hundreds of different products manufactured around the world. It makes sense to get as much value out of our pine trees as possible, hence the site was founded in the early 1980s.

Without us, Tokoroa and Kawerau's pulp and paper mills cannot operate as they don't have capacity to store or dispose of their by-product materials on site. These mills produce paper and cardboard packaging, tissues, building materials and other essential products so must remain open under Alert Level 4 and Level 3 conditions.

The products processed at our Mount Maunganui site are also considered essential products.