No bad news in knitwear

By DITA DE BONI

The managing director of a fast-expanding knitwear empire says he revels in the "doom and gloom" that persists about the apparel industry.

While many play a melancholy violin for local clothing manufacture, Mike Langhorne is doing a jig.

He presides over four knitwear companies which bring in more than $10 million a year in sales and says the world market is his oyster.

Mr Langhorne owns Tapestry Knitwear in East Tamaki, half of the Tauranga-based Possumdown operation and its Australian distribution arm, and a Bay of Plenty possum-trapping agency, Furline Holdings. He has just added to the group Onehunga-based Rilli Knitwear, which specialises in uniforms and corporate wear, making a staff of more than 130 all up.

His motto is simple: There's no bad news in this industry - you just have to get off your backside and look for markets.

About half of all the sweaters, tops and other attire made by Mr Langhorne's combined businesses is exported to places including Europe, Japan and North America.

US distributors, such as Australian Outback and Landsdown Under, which supply American department stores, have also been in touch.

The company aims to be exporting about 75 per cent of all garments in two years time.

Possum fur and the "Made in New Zealand" brand positioning have assured the garb's success in export markets, says Mr Langhorne.

"Possum is the best thing New Zealand ever had. It's such a fantastic natural resource. Possums will never proliferate anywhere else close to their numbers in New Zealand."

Other local firms, such as Snowy Peak, also use possum fur and Mr Langhorne says it will be important for the serious companies to preserve the high standard of possum fur garments for export.

"With those large export orders, it is certainly about urgency and professionalism. We have to be able to fulfil the orders to the highest standards because you only get one chance with most of them."

Mr Langhorne bought Tapestry almost five years ago when it was a near-defunct, bulk-contract knitwear company. It did not export and had no brands of its own.

"People thought I was really stupid," he says. But the company's turnover has increased 100 per cent over the past four years.