Kilwell is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Photo / Andrew Warner
Kilwell has made more than 2.5 million fishing lures, produced 200-plus lightsaber wands for a Star Wars film, rowing oars for Olympic gold medallists, and 28,000 squash racquet shafts for big sports brands.
From its humble beginnings, the iconic Rotorua-based company has grown to become an internationally-recognised brand.
Kilwell Sports is now celebrating its 90th year of business.
Its third-generation owners are proud their employees stay with the company for an average of 20 years, with one employee - who this year marks 46 years with Kilwell - saying family-friendly values have allowed the company to stand the test of time.
“Without the staff, we wouldn’t be here 90 years on,” says co-owner Amanda Wells.
In 1933, Englishman John L. Wells took over a fledgling fishing tackle shop called Kelly’s in Auckland’s Victoria Arcade, owning shares in a company called Kelly Ltd.
In 1935, Wells moved Kelly Ltd to Fenton St in Rotorua, naming it the Rotorua Sports Depot, and put out the company’s first wholesale price list under the name Kelly (Rotorua) Ltd the following year.
Wells created the Kilwell brand during the 1930s and 1940s, initially spelt Killwell with two ‘L’s in the middle, as he wanted his flies to kill fish well. However, the second L was later dropped as it was “not very PC” .
By 1949, the Rotorua Sports Depot retail shop was sold and Kelly (Rotorua) Ltd traded solely as an importer and wholesaler.
Wells’ youngest son, Jeremy Wells, said he left school at age 18 in December 1961.
“I had no idea what I was going to do. So I started in the factory on Monday varnishing fishing rods and handles.”
He said he started on 15 cents an hour before he was given a raise to 25 cents an hour after about a year in the company. “I thought I had struck gold.”
After a short stint on an overseas experience, Wells returned in 1964 and moved into the wholesale side of the business.
“I was a rep on the run for a few years. It was fun.”
In 1965, Wells and his older brother John G. Wells bought the company from their father who had become unwell and chose to retire.
A new era began in 1968 when Kilwell Fibretube was established and now manufactures an extensive range of tubular fibreglass, graphite, and composite products used in a multitude of applications from recreational products to industrial use. It was one of the first companies in Australasia to produce tubular fibreglass and rod blanks for the domestic and export markets.
Wells said he remembered making the first fibreglass tube with his father.
“We pulled it out of the oven and Dad put his arm around me. That was a pretty special moment.”
In 1985, the Kilwell brand had become so prominent nationally, the company and its subsidiaries were changed to reflect the brand name, and Kilwell Sports Ltd was established.
In 1987, John L. Wells died at age 87.
In 1989, Kilwell moved to its current location on Te Ngae Rd.
Jeremy Wells took over the company solely in the early 1990s and the building now acts as a museum for his collection of fishing tackle, rods, reels, and taxidermy.
Wells said he had often wondered how and why the business had stood the test of time.
“There is no one reason.”
Being a family business in a small town they were “lucky” to have never needed to spend money on recruitment.
If they needed a job filled, they always knew someone who knew someone, he said.
“Our job was making, buying, creating, goods for leisure. Everything we made, we knew that families were going to get some enjoyment out of it. Fishing is one of the greatest sports you can do as a family.
“Whatever we were making whether it be a sprat line fishing rod to fish off the Tauranga wharf, or a rod for a big game fisherman, regardless of income you were getting a buzz out of it.”
After 56 years at the helm, Wells retired and handed the company to a third generation - his children Amanda and Geoff Wells who took over in 2018.
Wells said his father would have been “immensely proud” the business was still family-run and was still here today.
“Just like I am very proud of my two children who are carrying it on. I am very lucky...”
Amanda Wells said her grandfather John L. Wells moved the company to Rotorua because of its proximity to the lakes, “it was the best place to go fishing”.
Today, there was about 66 staff working across the two businesses - 26 with Kilwell Sports and 40 with Kilwell Fibretube, Wells said.
Wells said the average amount of time a staff member worked with Kilwell Sports was 20 years - 141 staff have served 10 years or more, 52 staff have served 20 years, 19 staff have served 30 years, seven staff have served 40 years, and one has served 56 years.
“We celebrate and acknowledge our staff’s long service with an awards ceremony every year. Names or photos go on a board depending on the length of service,” she said.
Wells said the company had adapted with creativity over the years since beginning as a fishing rod manufacturer 90 years ago.
In the early 1960s, the company began manufacturing brass freshwater bait lures, which Wells said are still made the same way today and are individually hand painted.
“We produce 50,000 to 60,000 per annum. Over 2.5 million lures have been made since we began. One (now retired) employee had painted over one million lures in her 30-plus year career.”
Wells said in the 1970s, the company produced more than 28,000 squash racquet shafts for big sports brands including Dunlop, Slazenger, and Spalding, and in the 1980s, it was averaging 40,000 fishing rods a year. Kilwell Fibretube also manufactured Rotorua’s Hemo Gorge sculpture.
It has even produced rowing oars that were used by Olympic gold medallists Mahe Drysdale, Charlotte and Georgina Evers-Swindell, and Rob Waddell, as well as yacht masts used by Olympic sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke for their silver medal win in London in 2012 and gold medal win in Rio 2016, she said.
More than 200 lightsaber wands were also produced by the company for the third episode of the Star Wars Film Revenge of the Sith, which was released in 2005, she said.
“The film crew were initially using aluminium rods, which bent and broke upon impact. A scout spotted some silver fishing rods in a shop window and contacted our Brisbane-based agent.
“We produced a carbon fibre wand for them covered with a silver layer of texalium over the top. The wands we manufactured don’t glow – this was generated in post-production.”
In 2022, Kilwell Fibretube rebranded to Kilwell Fibrelab.
Wells said she and her brother Geoff were “incredibly proud” of the company’s longevity and being part of its future.
“It is quite humbling to still be here and to have so many loyal staff who still want to work with us,” she said.
“It is quite a big weight on our shoulders to keep it going into the fourth generation of our family.”
Longevity comes down to good ideas and innovative individuals who “are willing to push the barrow”, Wells said.
“We have got a really true family culture. Generations of families have or do work in the company.”
Wells said she had learned a lot from her father Jeremy Wells.
“Dad used to walk through the floor and he had such a cool relationship with everyone. He had an open-door policy. He always had time for everyone.
“I have taken that on board and I have tried to keep that going.”
She also wasn’t afraid to pick up a broom and sweep the floor and “get my hands dirty”.
“I’m no more special than anyone else,” she said.
Wells, who had been working at Kilwell for 17 years, said she loved working with her father and her brother. “We all get along.”
Ian Levet, 63, started working at Kilwell in 1977.
Levet left school at age 14 to become a cabinet apprentice before securing a temporary job as a plumber’s labourer at age 15.
The plumber he was working for at the time was working on a job for Kilwell and told the boss Levet would soon be looking for a new, more permanent, job.
“They [Kilwell] were looking for somebody who was good with their hands, which I always have been.”
So a 16-year-old Levet applied and started on May 17, 1977.
Levet said he has held several roles within the company since starting as a fishing rod assembler. That included making wooden grips and handles and rod samples at the beginning to fishing rod repair and now a production supervisor.
This year will be his 46th year working for the company.
“I have been fishing since I can ever remember. So this job just suited me down to a tee.”
He was also into hunting. “That was another plus.”
But Levet said it was the people in the company that have kept him there.
Levet remembered when he first started working for the company.
After about three or four weeks in, he played a practical joke on the then-production foreman.
“He was a bear of a man but a real softy,” he said.
“At that stage, I was still getting to know everybody. I got a bit cheeky.”
Levet said the team used to fill detergent bottles up with water and squirt their colleagues as they walked past but the production foreman had never been touched.
One day, Levet said he squirted him with the detergent bottle.
“He erupted. He turned around, picked me up, and dumped me head-first into one of the rubbish bins, which were 44-gallon drums at that time. My shoulder just went into the drum and I couldn’t get my arms out.”
“Everybody was laughing their heads off. It took me about an hour and a half to get myself out.”
Levet said there had also been many staff parties held over the years and the team bonded over beers and barbecues.
It was a “family-friendly atmosphere” and everyone was on a first-name basis, he said.
He had noticed a lot of changes over the years, mostly with technology and material used to make the fishing rods.
Levet said when he first started, they used split cane, which was what fishing rods used to be made out of before moving to carbon fibre in the late-1980s.
“We have evolved.”
Gaylene Transom was 19 years old when she started working at the company in 1984.
The now 57-year-old started as a junior computer operator.
Transom said they had to work in a sectioned-off room because in those days computers had to be temperature controlled.
“Back in those days, we had these massive computers with huge hard drives.”
Apart from taking time off for about six months to get married and start a family, Transom has been working on and off for the company ever since.
Transom said she did do a six-year stint working for another company but was drawn back to Kilwell.
“I kept coming back,” she said. “I missed the people and the atmosphere. I missed that camaraderie.
“Some of the staff are literally family,” she said with a laugh. “You feel wanted. You’re quite happy to go to work every day.”
Transom said whenever someone new started at the company she was introduced as “This is Gaylene, she is part of the furniture. If you need anything come and see her, she knows everything”.
“It does make me feel like I am a valued member of the company,” she said.
Transom said working there was “like putting on a pair of comfy shoes.”
Leon Andrews started at Kilwell in 1991. He celebrated his 30th year with the company last year.
Andrews, 52, said he was unemployed at the time a job as a rod builder came up at Kilwell more than 30 years ago.
“I went for an interview and it was the easiest interview I have ever had. They told me I can start on Monday and I have been there ever since.”
Before he started, Andrews said he had already been doing odd jobs for the owner at the time and the best thing about that day was that he already knew the boss and many of the employees through touch rugby.
“It felt like home already,” he said.”
He said it was the people he worked with who made him get out of bed for work every day.
“It is like a big family.”
Andrews said he was one of the few who had worked in pretty much all parts of the factory, from cutting, to tacking, to rolling, “the whole shebang”.
He said it was the way the company has adapted to new technology over the years that had made it stand the test of time.
He said he was proud his photo was on the wall as one of the long-standing members of the team.
“It is pretty cool to know that it will still be there if I ever leave. It is a cool way to remember the many people who have worked here for a long time.”
Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell said it was a significant milestone for what has been a third-generation family-owned business.
“It is iconic in Rotorua. Many families have worked or have been a part of the wider Kilwell team.
“Importantly, it has helped to establish an adventure and fishing brand in Rotorua, which is surrounded by our lakes. It has always been a great place to be producing some of the best fishing equipment in the country.”
A disregard for authority could be why those attending court are thumbing their noses.