Local export success

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 19

Local export success

The New Zealand ExportImport Corporation has found a ready market in Australia for a line of children’s educational jig-saw toys made in a backyard workshop in picturesque Governor’s Bay, near Lyttelton.

And other export markets may also be opening up to the educational puzzle products of husband-and-wife team of Dennis and Jan Howell, whose four-year-old company — Howell Enterprises, Ltd, — has developed recently to the stage where expansion to a small factory in Christchurch and a 400 per cent staff increase to 10 is imminent.

The Export-Import Corporation’s South Island manager (Mr Bernard Zeff) identified the Australian market for the toys, which are now being actively promoted by

a Victorian firm of wholesalers. Mr Zeff said that at $43,000 over the next two years, the present orders from the wholesaler are small, but they represent a significant percentage of the New Zealand company’s annual $70,000 turnover in toys and demand is likely to increase.

“Reports we have had back indicate they are finding a ready acceptance in the stores in which they are being sold,” he said. The corporation saw one of its prime aims as helping small manufacturers to export and he hoped the experience of the Howells in dealing with it would lead to inquiries from other similar and medium-sized South Island organisations.

The Howells’s children’s puzzles are fretworked out of scm-thick timber, and come in a number of vari-

ations enabling — children to construct various animals.

For the Australian market the company has designed a range of puzzles which include koala bears and a simple map of the country. It has also sold its puzzles to the Solomons through the Export-Import Corporation and both Messrs Howell and Zeff believe there may be other Pacific markets for them.

“Ultimately, of course, we’d like to look at the biggest market of all — the United States — and when the Export-Import Corporation sets up its New Zealand trade centre on the West Coast of that country later this year, we may be in a position to do so,” said Mr Howell.

He expects the company to be operating out of its new Christchurch factory by the end of August.