AA 50-year-old Southland business has pivoted from high-end clothing to face masks and now furniture as it adapts to the ever-changing Covid-19 pandemic.
The evolution has required learning about new markets, hiring new, specialised staff, and retraining designers.
Knight of New Zealand is part of Bonz Group and has been manufacturing high-end sheepskin, leather, wool and possum fur clothing, mostly for international buyers and tourists, since the 1970s.
Bonz managing director Oscar Rodwell said “when the borders closed, we lost our customers overnight.”
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* An Invercargill factory producing merino face masks
Rodwell had to find creative solutions to keep the factory going because “we didn’t know how long this was going to last”.
So at the start of the pandemic, the team started producing merino face masks.
These proved wildly successful in early 2020, with vineyards and meat processing companies buying them in bulk to keep their staff safe.
“We had teams working 24/7 to keep up [with demand],” Rodwell said.
As disposable face masks became more accessible, demand for the merino variety petered out.
However, the team were already working on the next pivot: sheepskin furniture.
While the business had been using sheepskin for years, Rodwell said it took some time to translate the idea into a catalogue.
Designers had to complete upholstery courses to understand the new medium, and he needed to find a skilled craftsman to make their concepts a reality.
In the beginning, some manufacturing was outsourced, but now some 20 products are being built from start to finish in the Invercargill factory using only materials sourced from New Zealand.
“We’re supporting a wide array of businesses and keeping Kiwis in employment,” Rodwell said. “I’m really proud.”
The furniture arm of the business adds a brand with domestic appeal that will keep it sustainable if it can’t sell apparel, he said.
The group was fortunate in that Kiwis who couldn’t travel were keen to use their disposable income to spruce up their homes, and the Bonz Furniture was now growing off the back of that “huge demand”, Rodwell said.
As the borders reopen, it’s selling in Australia and the Middle East.
“It’s growing offshore now, which is really exciting.”
Rodwell was grateful for his staff for being wiling to try out new ideas and grow.
“They put up with shenanigans from me. I’m a classic entrepreneur and I go off on tangents.”
While the business could have taken a huge knock, he would be able to look back on the pandemic as a period of growth and diversification, he said.
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