N.Z. clothing firm gains hold in U.S.

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 20

N.Z. clothing firm gains hold in U.S.

By John Hutchison in San Francisco Woollen shirts and jackets made in Waitara, Taranaki, by a Dunedinbased firm are gaining a foothold in the North American market from coast to coast.

Its management and warehouse in San Francisco and its sales organisation and showroom in New York City, Swanndri, Ltd, a subsidiary of Alliance Textiles, Ltd, sells directly to retailers in the United States and Canada, with particular attention to sporting goods shops and departments.

Mr Colin Carr, aged 34, the firm’s Wellington-born manager, is wellexperienced to represent a New Zealand clothing firm in the United States. After four years with the World Bank in Washington the young chartered' accountant set up in 1973 a sales office in San Francisco for Lane Walker Rudkin, the Christchurch manufacturer of rugbv and soccer gear which has since also entered the American men’s suit trade. Five successful years later, Mr Carr shifted a year ago to Swanndri. He has already established that trademark in an en-

couraging number of shops, two mail order firms specialising in quality outdoor clothing, and in a test order in 36 branches of the J. C. Penney Company’, one of the biggest department store chains in the United States. ‘‘Penney stores in the states of Alaska and Washington have the line now.” he said. “If it does well, Penney will put Swanndri into three or four hundred stores of its western region.” Success there could mean entry to the entire chain of 1700 Penney’ department stores, many of them big establishments in the largest shopping centers. Sales were also developing well in Canada, said Mr Carr, who has just organised a marketing staff there. He believes that Swanndri sales in North America will total $1.5 million for the next full year.

The firm is also testing the market with a line of hand knitting wools and has plans to sell special upholstery fabrics, some of which are being supplied now to a New York decorator who provides his own designs. Mr Colin Carr is the son of Mr Tom Carr, a Wellington furniture manufacturer.