“Time is money and time on site costs more," says Neil Ridgway, owner of Asona Ltd, an Auckland based specialist manufacturer of commercial acoustic ceiling and wall panels. “And in this new Covid world where predictability is at a premium, Asona is in a great position to help clients manage their supply chain risk, keep to programme and budget and deliver a neat tailored finish by assembling panels, particularly labour-intensive custom panels, off-site in our factory."

Off-site manufacturing and assembly of acoustic ceiling elements, especially NZ based manufacturing, delivers many benefits to the market. A manufacturing work environment is sustainable, it delivers controlled repeatability, consistent quality, on-time delivery and can better manage staff training and development, health and safety, materials, waste and recycling.

A manufacturing plant is also unaffected by weather delays and other uncertainty factors that push out programmes and increase build costs.

To deliver this, Asona has invested in world class manufacturing capabilities to process a range of materials and offer its clients a full-service package from contactless design consulting and collaboration, concept sampling and mock-ups, remote manufacturing and assembly as well as on site installation through a network of specialist installers.

Products meet local acoustic, fire and seismic regulations and are available in short lead times in standard and custom finishes. Asona operates a local cardboard packaging return and reuse programme and a cut to size service as a means to reduce construction waste, the products are green tag certified, contain 80% recycled glass waste, are energy efficient and can be resurfaced and reused to extend product life.