Combining to survive
Two established Christchurch manufacturers of high-end handcrafted furniture collaborated to cut overheads and strengthen their businesses in post-quake Christchurch.
Davies Furniture had to move out of its Blenheim Rd premises in June after a detailed engineering evaluation revealed its building did not meet the new seismic building code requirements.
Davies Furniture managing director Andrew Davies and Southern Creations director Blair Quane agreed Davies Furniture staff and more than half its equipment would relocate to Southern Creations’ Bromley factory.
Within a couple of days the pair had reached an agreement based on little more than a handshake, and Davies’ staff moved in a couple of days later. Quane said he was a ‘‘typical manufacturer’’ with overheads to pay and too much capacity at his workshop.
The pair agreed Quane would run the manufacturing operations side of what they named The Design Workshop, and Davies would run the sales and marketing of three brands – Southern Creations, Davies Furniture, and Davies Furniture’s new luxury brand, Treology, which crafts pieces from naturally felled ancient timber reclaimed from lakes and rivers in Fiordland and Northland.
Quane took Davies’ staff on as his own, and Quane bills Davies for a percentage of the sale price of the pieces Davies markets and sells. Three years of recession had resulted in many New Zealand furniture manufacturers ‘‘dropping off’’ because of competition from imports but for these two companies their collaboration has meant better bargaining power with suppliers, better insurance premiums, and lower costs.