A young couple’s desire to succeed in a new country has built a tradition of hand-crafted furniture that thrives more than 60 years later in the hands of their children in New Zealand.
It’s a tale of refugees, hardship, hard work and a determination to build by hand, using local raw materials and building a reputation for quality and sustainability that not only keeps customers returning - but a third generation of family members wanting to work there.
Stephen and Maria Kovacs were in their late teens when they left their native Hungary. Stephen, son of a Budapest butcher, had won a scholarship to study industrial chemistry despite having to hide from his father to read books. He was frustrated with the Soviet-style economy and the couple got out before the people’s rebellion of 1956 and the lifting of the Iron Curtain.
They lived in neighbouring Austria for two years before qualifying as refugees to New Zealand, marrying in Innsbruck and accepting any work available. They were pleased to forsake a Europe wracked with the pain of two world wars and arrive in a Christchurch that was a comparative land of milk and honey. They were amazed to see people feeding bread to ducks; they were used to people eating a loaf down to the last crumb.
They were poor but ambitious and had several jobs. Maria, heavily pregnant with their first child, Hildy, cycled many kilometres to work at making handbags.
Stephen soon came up against the great Kiwi levelling machine working for a local upholstery firm. Eager to save a home deposit, he asked his boss for a pay rise because he was producing twice as much as his workmates. Told to slow to the pace of the others, he retaliated by making furniture in the shed at home during weekends. The noise from the shed was not to the neighbours’ liking, however, pushing him into commercial premises.
Their business snowballed and Kovacs Design Furniture was born. By the time they were in their early 30′s, they had nearly 25 staff. Stephen expanded his market to Christchurch’s hinterland, taking his products around in a little van, arranging them outside a town’s furniture store, asking the proprietor to inspect them and make an order.
Hildy Kovacs and brother Johnny witnessed their parents’ hard work as they too were drawn to the business; in their holiday jobs, they learnt the ropes. Johnny joined the firm at 21 with a commerce degree - a year ahead of Hildy who also joined after university.
Johnny appreciated his father’s talents: “He was very studious – reading about manufacturing and systems. He was an innovator. He introduced technology and labour-saving systems and good working conditions too.” Hildy says he developed engineering skills so he could manipulate machinery to do what he wanted. He could also sketch, a skill he taught the children, and to encourage aesthetic appreciation, took them to Europe, touring furniture shops and museums.
“Dad was good at gathering staff who were ambitious and talented, and we learned from them,” says Johnny. “It was an exciting time in our lives. As a team, we had a real desire to have a design that created so much demand that we struggled to meet it.”
Hildy’s mother taught her to sew. She worked with Stephen on new designs, learning many skills that are still the foundation of Hildy’s design ethos today. Her style of designing is hands-on. She can be seen today in the factory, clad in red overalls, taking pains over the whole product instead of passing over the design for someone to finish. “Making something with your hands brings a satisfaction that has been lost in New Zealand with the rise of imports taking away so much of New Zealand manufacturing,” she says.
As the second generation picked up the reins of the business, Stephen’s health deteriorated, as it did for so many other war children; he died in 1993 on his 59th birthday. Maria passed away in 2016.
In keeping the legacy alive, the second generation had to overcome adversity too. Bigger premises in Ferrymead were damaged in the 2011 earthquake, but back in action eight weeks later. The disruption caused by the pandemic restricted imported furniture supplies. Hildy says this gave New Zealand-made products an opportunity to show they were better than some of the sought-after European brand names, in quality and design interpretation.
Kovacs Design Furniture also rode out economic storms that sunk many of their competitors. The removal of import tariffs resulted in a flood of low-cost goods, wiping out 40 per cent of furniture companies between 2004-2009 alone, according to the Furniture and Cabinetmakers Association.
As a wholesaler, says Johnny, Kovacs reaches customers through retail partners and three trade showrooms – in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. There, their designs can stand out and their intrinsic value appreciated as crafted and finished by hand.
Consolidating the company’s position, as well as achieving growth, has needed Johnny’s analytical skills and focus on the company’s core strengths. They positioned their products away from the mass-produced goods of factories. The company brand stands for timeless, quality pieces, designed and made locally by artisans. It doesn’t deal in obsolescence – doubling down on quality materials.
Hildy says Kovacs started the trend of using sustainable material, such as water-based adhesives and southern beech, a renewable resource of timber harvested in western Southland. “It’s important for the quality of our product that we source, as much as we can, natural products from in New Zealand.”
Furniture is like the fashion industry, she says. Demand is still strong for classic designs which, after 20-30 years of use, attract a loyal following on the secondhand market as well as expectation of new designs every year.
Kovacs’ customers are well travelled and want some of that style and elegance they’ve seen. New technology and materials are adopted to achieve design results that once “you could only dream of”, says Hildy. For example, she learned how to design and utilise solid steel frames made in their factory to achieve a shape and weight in her most recent range of product that was not viable using the traditional wood.
Strong demand for their products after decades of refusing to compromise on quality is good news for Hildy and Johnny as they head for a future including several of the third generation of family members now working there and learning the Kovacs way. Next year Kovacs Design Furniture will proudly celebrate 65 years of making furniture in New Zealand.
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