Flights lure merino empire to Auckland
STYLISH merino empire Icebreaker is moving its jetsetting marketing team out of Wellington to work from Auckland, where international flights are more regular.
While founder Jeremy Moon previously said ‘‘what defines Wellington is our creativity’’, he is transferring his creative marketing staff out of the city.
Moon, who famously started Icebreaker at age 24 in 1994 with a loan he told the bank would be spent on a new kitchen, said key marketing roles would be moved to Auckland to provide services to its global business.
The number of staff moving had not been confirmed because some were still undecided about whether they wanted to uproot their lives from Wellington.
Icebreaker’s Wellington headquarters will stay home to about 70 inventory, finance, IT and supply chain staff.
‘‘We have eight offices across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand all supported by our head office in Wellington. We are expanding our New Zealand operations to build a new global marketing team based in Auckland,’’ said Moon, who now has homes in both Wellington and Auckland. He is understood to have set up a new home in Auckland last year.
‘‘This move will ensure that Icebreaker grows as a global brand and remains the passionate world leader in merino apparel.’’
Tommy’s Real Estate agent Chris Gollins said the move was a blow for Wellington and demonstrated the current city leadership’s inability to connect with business.
‘‘You can only guess someone has convinced them Auckland is the centre of the fashion and garment trade in New Zealand. It might have something to do with Wellington’s lack of international flights. If they’ve got people who are regularly jetting off overseas, Wellington is just that much more inconvenient.’’
Icebreaker, which opened its first Australian retail store in December, employs 350 worldwide. It recently moved its Wellington office headquarters from the Hope Gibbons building, undergoing earthquake strengthening, to the Manthel Building on the corner of Wakefield and Taranaki streets.
Its chief financial officer David Anderson has recently been promoted to chief operating officer overseeing finance, inventory, IT and supply chain teams as well as being head of the Wellington Icebreaker office.