Vanities to vacuum forming

By ELLEN READ Manufacturing writer

A resourceful Albany company has devised a novel way to combat a business downturn.

For more than a decade, Vogue Bathroomware has made bathroom vanities, but last year's economic slowdown led to a drop in orders and spurred company to diversify.

So it now builds and exports the vanity-making Machines themselves.

Company director Trevor Shoebridge said the New Zealand vanity industry was highly competitive, with six or seven suppliers operating.

The vanity-making machines - known as vacuum formers with the trade name ShoeBieVac - are fully automated and require only one person to operate them.

In full flight they can produce a moulded vanity top every five minutes.

A sheet of acrylic is heated between two plates before a mould flies up from underneath and forms the shape. The vanity-top shell is then filled with foam, which expands and hardens to form a solid unit.

The vacuum formers cost $150,000 and take around three months to build. So far, Vogue Bathroomware has exported two machines to Australia and has received inquiries from the United States.

Mr Shoebridge said that while other countries built vacuum formers, NZ was the only country to produce them for export. The firm hoped eventually to export six units a year. Vogue was the only maker with the ability to adapt the machines to buyers' exact specifications.

Mr Shoebridge will travel to a US kitchen and bathroomware show next month to promote the machines.