William Ross and Sons factory transferred to Foxton from Napier in June 1906. It was situated on 6 ½ acres in Johnston Street with a detached office. They manufactured binder twine, shop twine, manila flax ropes and lashings, plough lines, clothes lines and all classes of polished lines in twines and ropes. The business was destroyed by fire in 1909 and was replaced by a corrugated iron rope factory, which later became the “Opra” flaxmill of A Ross, Rough and Co. Ltd.