PlaceMakers is the trading name of Fletcher Distribution Limited, the building materials trading and distribution arm of Fletcher Building Limited in New Zealand.
PlaceMakers is New Zealand’s leading and largest supplier of building materials and hardware. We sell over 74,000 product lines from concrete to paint and plasterboard, and manufacture frames and trusses from manufacturing plants nationwide.
We have over 2,000 staff assisting over 300,000 customers in more than 50 store locations, from Kaitaia to Invercargill.
PlaceMakers people get to work as part of a dynamic team supported by a high level of product knowledge and skills development provided by New Zealand’s leading building industry supplier, Fletcher Building Limited.
Where we came from
PlaceMakers has a long and proud history.
The current PlaceMakers structure emerged from the 1988 merger between Fletcher Merchants Limited and Winstone Trading Limited (which had earlier acquired both Odlins and Zip Trading).
Back in 1910, James Fletcher established a joinery factory and over 70 years Fletchers became one of the largest timber merchants in New Zealand. In 1958, Fletchers expanded into building materials merchandising by purchasing a number of key companies and was renamed Fletcher Merchants.
Fletcher Merchants introduced the hardware supermarket / one stop shop concept for building materials in New Zealand and 1981 adopted a new trading brand – PlaceMakers.
The Winstone name goes back even further than Fletcher – to 1864 – and became a large and reputable supplier to the building and construction markets. Winstone Trading Limited was formed in 1984 and over five years grew to provide national coverage by purchasing a number of smaller businesses.
The merger of Fletcher Merchants Limited and Winstone Trading Limited in 1988 resulted in the largest and only nationwide building materials chain in New Zealand.
In 1991 PlaceMakers set up the innovative Joint Venture business model - in which Fletcher Building partners with local owner-operators to run co-owned building supplies distribution businesses under the "PlaceMakers" brand. This form of franchise has continued through almost 20 years and a wide range of market and economic conditions to this very day.