Work-apparel company here to stay

By DITA DE BONI

The country's largest work-apparel company has won the contract to supply Stagecoach bus staff with uniforms, and says it is confident apparel manufacturing in New Zealand is still viable.

Christchurch-based Deane Apparel will start producing uniforms for 1140 Stagecoach staff next month or in May. The private company already supplies Stagecoach's Yellow Bus staff with their signature blue outfits.

The cost of the contract has not been disclosed, but it is believed the new business will double income from Stagecoach. Deane's sales are more than $30 million a year.

To cope with an upsurge in business from both New Zealand and Australia, the company has hired more than 30 new staff at its Christchurch plant and, says chief executive Richard Thumath, is "still adding."

"We've crunched the numbers and, in the analysis, the benefits of keeping production in New Zealand outweigh manufacturing offshore."

Helping the bottom line is a host of contracts won in Australia last year. Eight sales and marketing staff there complement more than 200 manufacturing staff and 50 head office staff in New Zealand.

Several thousand Australians wear Deane uniforms, including those working at HSBC (HongKongBank), the New South Wales Department of Housing, Shell service stations and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Mr Thumath said apparel companies could undertake cost-effective manufacturing in New Zealand and he did not understand how a company such as Bendon would work around the long lead time needed for products made in Southeast Asia.

"Throughput is something [Deane] has been steadily working on improving, because quick turnaround is essential in this business. For our company, it takes four to five days for an order to be completed and shipped out. But I think it's not fast enough. We'd like to get it down to two."

Mr Thumath said the company had also worked hard on cutting costs. "Our costs haven't risen much because we run the business lean, our operators are highly skilled and we can deliver on time."

Deane - owned by United States-based service giant Steiner Corporation - had also introduced the outsourcing of footwear as part of a "total solution" to a client company's uniform requirements.