The NZ tile industry is relatively young but really clicked up in the late 1980s when import restrictions were removed and major retail groups started to heavily promote tile and tiling to the New Zealand consumer.

Over the years there have been a few attempts to establish tile associations as there has been an industrywide recognition. We need to provide clear concise standards in regard to tile setting but also waterproofing but other than CTANZ that briefly existed in the early 2000’s we have not been successful in establishing a functional tile association.

What’s different this time is we have been fortunate to partner with the Australian Tile Council and gain access to all their technical tile and tiling manuals and are also in a position where we will be collaborating in joint Australian and New Zealand standards. What this will mean is we can access 50 years of intellectual property and tailor this to New Zealand code and conditions to provide clear and concise resources for the tile industry and building companies.

We are also grateful that the tile industry as a whole has grasped the opportunity and the seed funders have contributed in excess of $100000 to start the process and with this funding and future subscriptions our Association will be self-funding and able to deliver on supporting its members and the tile industry as a whole.

Neville Colbert - Chairman