Cambridge Clothing

WHEN WE last featured Cambridge Clothing, back in 2001, it planned to keep manufacturing in New Zealand “as long as it makes sense”. Six years on, it makes less sense than it used to. Last year the company had 25% of its output manufactured in China and that figure is expected to rise to 50% this year, due to what Cambridge’s marketing manager Kim Macky calls “the changing shape of the marketplace”.

Outsourcing to China has resulted in its now 250-strong workforce being cut by about a fifth. The good news is the company continues to utilise its Auckland manufacturing plant for its own designs, and also contract manufactures on behalf of others, which now accounts for about a quarter of its output. “All the manufacturing plants in Australia have closed now so our manufacturing plant in Auckland has been very busy although it’s coming down from a high 12 months ago due to the high Kiwi dollar.”

So making some suits in China is a big change but the biggest transformation has come since the clothing company underwent a Better by Design audit in 2005. “That’s fundamentally changed the shape of our business,” Macky says. “Design and branding will play a more significant part in our goals and targets than just being a manufacturer and wholesaler.”

The company has spent the past two years reshaping its management structure, including setting up a head of design, Nicholas Blanchet, a Kiwi who heads the design team based in Australia. Some 65% of Cambridge Clothing’s production is exported to Australia. Although the company has dabbled with exports to other countries it views the Australian market as the most compatible with its Auckland-based business and one in which there is still plenty of room to grow.

Currently Cambridge has ten stores within Australian department stores and as part of its design-led makeover plans to open a number of its own standalone stores across the Tasman in the next year. It has no plans to follow suit in New Zealand, though, because of the smaller size of the market here.

Cambridge is still owned by the Macky and Goodfellow families who founded the Auckland company in 1934. Macky says the company will continue to be based in New Zealand, tailoring its business to premium-priced brands. “We foresee a New Zealand-based manufacturing operation being sustainable for the foreseeable future but what size it needs to be is the question.”

National Party leader John Key has admitted the involvement of frontbench MP Gerry Brownlee in a casino consultancy was "inappropriate" and a wake-up call for his caucus.

The Ilam MP has resigned as a director of New Zealand Casino Services, just a month after agreeing to go on the fledgling company's board.  The company, set up to advise casinos throughout New Zealand, is headed by Stephen Lyttelton and Peter Arbuckle, both former senior executives at the Christchurch Casino.

The pair resigned from the casino last month, alleging a series of problems that are now the subject of an inquiry by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).  Inquiries by The Press have revealed that the company's other director is another senior member of the National Party, wealthy Auckland businessman Peter Goodfellow.

Goodfellow, a former chairman of the Auckland Young Nationals, was re-elected to National's governing board of directors last year.  He is also a director of a host of prominent companies, including Sanfords, Cambridge Clothing and some finance companies.  The Press understands that New Zealand Casino Services is applying for a gaming licence.

Brownlee told The Press yesterday that he was embarrassed about his involvement and had joined the board of the company only as a favour to Lyttelton, who was a friend.

"I did it mainly as a favour to a friend," Brownlee said. "That is not very smart.  He initially talked about a company that would be an advisory-consultancy service to casino operators in New Zealand, and I thought, `Well, that's perfectly reasonable. There's nothing inappropriate about that'," Brownlee said.  But then as the various allegations came out, I started to get concerned about what sort of position I was in because the DIA is investigating Christchurch Casino and I needed to be in a position where I could respond to those things."

Brownlee said that once he had realised he had "got myself in the wrong space" he tendered his resignation.  "I'm taking a bit of a battering, with people saying, `What the hell are you involved for?' Those are all fair questions – far worse after the DIA report if I started making comments."  Brownlee said his involvement and that of Goodfellow was nothing to do with the National Party. "I'd be absolutely gutted if there was any view if this was a National Party deal. Absolutely not," he said.

Key said the saga had been "a worthy reminder for our caucus" about how careful MPs needed to be when managing their private commercial interests and their public roles.  Key said he had not told Brownlee to quit the directorship but believed he had made the right decision. "Obviously, he believes he's got himself in a slightly compromised position and I think he's taken the entirely appropriate course of action in resigning from the company."

Key said he was careful with his private sector interests.  "I have got rid of most of my New Zealand interests because I don't want a conflict and what interests I do have are blind-managed."  The Goodfellow situation was different, Key said. While Brownlee was a public figure, Goodfellow was a private individual "who happens to be a National Party director".

Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker said yesterday that he hoped to have a report on allegations against the Christchurch Casino from the DIA next Friday. He expected to announce any decisions stemming from the report the following week.

Barker said he thought Brownlee was wise to have resigned his directorship.  "There is an inquiry currently being undertaken into the (casino) allegations and it is critical for the independence of the inquiry that it is not influenced by those involved in the political process," he said.