Fine Furniture Made In Christchurch

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 9

Fine Furniture Made In Christchurch

Fourteen Christchurch furnitur e manufacturers joined forces , last week to show their finest product s to retailers from throughout New Zealand.

As members of the furniture group of the Canterbury . Manufacturers’ Association, they set up stands in two prestige hotels—the Russley and the .White Heron—and offered prospective buyers 20 per cent off their air fares to come and look at them.

And the buyers came—close on 200 of them, from Whangarei and Bluff and every major centre in between. With the sole exception of Auckland, Christchurch is the leading manufacturer of furniture in New Zealand. And while Auckland

has the biggest firms, with the biggest outputs and biggest advertising promotions, Christchurch has been' steadily gaining a reputa- . tibn for the quality of its design and workmanship. Some of the firms which exhibited last week are now selling more than half their output to the North Island, much of it to Auckland. At least one firm is aWreighting regularly to Auckland on a competitive basis, and others find they can sell there at higher prices through having different designs.

The Christchurch men are proud, qpd perhaps even a. little boastful, of their firms and the work they do. To give two sample quota- { tions— ' i . ■ I "The big Auckland boys, I with 100 to 130 on the payroll, have to work aix weeks ahead. You could ask us for a presentation Chair tonight and we’d have it ready by 4 o’clock tomorrow." i “I could reproduce any piece of furniture that’s ever been made in the past, | and do it quicker, cheaper,. and better. I’ve got the! craftsmen and machines, I the modern techniques and I materials to do it” ; Craftsmen obviously play a major part in the success i of the Christchurch firms. I We asked one of the manufacturers how he got his men, and how he kept them. “We take tradesmen with I ability and we train them I the rest of the way,” he said. “They take a pride in I their work, and they arejl reasonably well paid. We i haven’t lost a good man yet I “See that chair? The man I who made that knocked out || $77 last week. He would I probably be happy with $65,1 but we paid him $77. He I looks at his chairs as Rem-1 brandt looked at his paint-1 Ings. No matter who buys I them, they are still his I chairs.”

Mr and Mrs Stephen Kovacs (above), of Vertex Continental Furniture, Ltd, take their ease in their Moorish-design Cadiz suite covered in deep-gold heavy plush and framed in handfinished beech.

of these suites were sold in Sydney last ■ year. When covered in this particularly expensive material, and completed by ' a coffee table and two side ; tables, the Cadiz retails at about $650.

Mr Kovaca started the company six years ago, on savings from working night shifts in Christchurch factories. Now the firm employs a staff of 34. As a young and developing company, how did they

get on during the recession? “We were very busy right through,” Mr Kovacs said. “People were more cautious, and the buyers looked for quality. Our sales went up 50 per cent during the recession.”