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The former Harbour Quays building. Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by an engineering firm trying to block a council's legal move over an earthquake-ruined building. BNZ bank sued Wellington City Council for more than $100 million in 2019 over the Harbour Quays building, demolished after the 2016 Kaikōura quake. The council sought to also make engineers Beca liable, too, if it came to it. The Supreme Court's new ruling is the third and final failure for Beca. The award-winning Wellington headquarters of the bank, owned by CentrePort, stood empty for years after 2016, before being demolished; it had also suffered damage to internal services in the 2013 Seddon quake. BNZ had argued the council was negligent in granting the building consent, its inspec...

By Annemarie Quill of Viral Dubai chocolate', supplied by House of Chocolate. Photo: Stuff / House of Chocolate Willy Wonka himself couldn't go as viral as the Dubai chocolate bars that sell a thousand in minutes, and now the frenzy has reached New Zealand, with one seller having to open another kitchen to cope with demand. If you've been online in the last few months, you've likely been haunted by images and videos of a thick chocolate bar with a gooey filling, that people snap in half and eat while you drool on the keyboard. Dubbed the 'viral Dubai chocolate bar', the original was manufactured by a Dubai company called Fix, but came to global attention after a TikTok video of a women eating it in her car has been viewed more than 80 million times. Visitors to Bota...

Photo: Jessica Hopkins/RNZ Oji Fibre Solutions Penrose mill is permanently closing, the E tū union says. Union spokesperson Joe Gallagher said the mill's last day would be 18 December and at least 72 workers at the mill had been affected. Oji Fibre Solutions said it was considering closing its Penrose mill, partly due to high power prices. Up to 75 workers would be affected. Earlier this month, 230 workers at Winston Pulp International were told the sawmill and pulp mills near Ruapehu were both closing for good. About 30 workers attended a meeting at the Penrose milll on Wednesday morning. Work at the site was paused for 24 hours. The company's announcement pack given to workers, which RNZ has seen, said this was to give staff time to go home, digest the news, and talk to their families ...

Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Fonterra is investing about $150 million to expand the cool store at its Whareroa site in Taranaki. The new cool store will be the size of three rugby fields, store around 26,000 tonnes of cheese, and increase the site's cool store capacity by around five thousand tonnes. The Whareroa site processes up to 12.5 million litres of milk per day and produces 30 percent of the co-op's cheese. Construction on the new cool store will begin next month and is expected to take three years to complete. Fonterra chief operating officer Anna Palairet said as is always the case when making investment decisions, the co-op carefully considers where to allocate capital to maximise value to farmer shareholders and unit holders over the long-term. "The new cool store is st...

A Synlait milk truck. Photo: Synlait/supplied Shareholders in embattled dairy company Synlait Milk have voted overwhelmingly to approve a range of measures to restore its finances and save the company. A special meeting has approved a $218 million issue of new shares to its two largest shareholders and a $450m finance package from a consortium of banks. The future of the debt-laden infant formula maker was hanging in the balance and needed shareholder approval to avoid the company likely going into insolvency. Chair George Adams said a 'no' vote would have sunk the company that "was worth saving", but saddled with debt totalling $565m. "To be clear, the board does not believe insolvency is the best option for Synlait or that creditors are paid and returns are delivered to shareholders,"...