Norsewear

Norsewear confirmed at the weekend the brand has been sold, but the company said its socks will still be made in New Zealand.  Apparel Brands is the buyer. It is owned by Aucklander Ben Nathan, former owner of Barkers Men's Clothing. Management bought the six Norsewear stores, including the one at Norsewood.

Redundancies at the Norsewood and Wanganui factories are likely.  The company employs 22 people in the Wanganui factory and 27 at Norsewood.  The Norsewear factory is the dominant employer in Norsewood.

The company indicated it will communicate with staff early this week.  Workers first learned of the proposed sale through media reports on Tuesday. Norsewear released a statement yesterday, but refused to make further comment.  An unnamed "company spokesperson" said "intensive work" would continue on the future of the manufacturing plant in Wanganui and the factory in Norsewood.  "These are complex negotiations and it is likely to be some time before final decisions are made," the spokesman said.  "We appreciate our staff have concerns about the future of their employment. It is still likely there will be some redundancies and Norsewear wishes to assure all staff that they will receive all their entitlements in full."

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws said his office had been in contact with Norsewear, seeking clarification on the future of the Wanganui plant and those employed there.  "This is a small but important business with skilled workers and of real value to the Wanganui economy."

Norsewear has promoted itself as a Kiwi icon. There was speculation this week that some production will be moved to China.  Mr Nathan registered a company called Norsewear Brands in July.

The future of clothing company Norsewear hangs in the balance, its owners saying they will decide this week whether to sell and sources saying the deal is already done and production may move to China.

The farming and ski wear clothing company celebrated its 40th birthday this year and has stressed in the past that it is a "Kiwi-made" company.  Norsewear exports clothing and many apparel companies, including Swanndri and Wellington-based Icebreaker, have already moved manufacturing overseas because of a high Kiwi dollar.

Norsewear director and managing director of Burleigh Evatt, the company's majority shareholder, Ian Fitzgerald said a final decision would be made this week but declined to comment further.  Sources said the company had been sold and plants in Wanganui and near Dannevirke might be closed and manufacturing moved to China.

Each factory employs about 30 staff.

A National Distribution Union official said it was told an announcement was due tomorrow.

The former owner of Barkers Men's Clothing, Ben Nathan, is understood to be the buyer.  Mr Nathan set up a company called Norsewear Brands in mid-July.

Clothing companies Swazi and Norsewear have opened a combined store in Wellington to tap into more "urban" customers.

Norsewear and Swazi have now opened four combined shops in the past five months, with others in Otaki, Geraldine and Tirau.  A fifth store opens in Auckland next month.

Swazi founder Davey Hughes said both companies had been having problems with urban and tourism markets.  "We were struggling to get into both of those."

Swazi specialises in heavy-duty outdoor gear.  Many people wanted to buy Swazi garments but sometimes did not want to go into a hunting or gun shop to get them, he said.

Combining the businesses halved the cost and the risk of opening up a high street store. Both companies support the Buy Kiwi Made campaign.

Mr Hughes said the shops were proving hugely successful.  Swazi's factory in Levin had taken on five more staff to cope with increased demand.  It now employed about 90 people at the factory and more in the shops.

Mr Hughes and wife Maggie started the company in October 1994. Swazi has fought to keep its production in New Zealand, despite competing with companies producing in lower-cost countries, such as China.

Norsewear was founded in 1963 by Norwegian Ola Rian. He set up its first factory in Norsewood, Hawke's Bay, in 1967.  The company went into receivership in the 1980s, when the textile industry was hit by a move to free trade that removed tariffs on imported clothing.

It now has about 70 staff at two factories, in Norsewood and Wanganui. In 2001 it branched out into urban wear and launched a range of outdoor and sports wear.

Strategy does not ask for higher tariffs. . . currently set at 19% for most apparel and 15% for textile imports
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AN ambitious draft strategy has been released for the textiles, clothing, footwear and carpet (TCFC) sector, where export growth has averaged 8.3% a year for the past decade.  Decimated in the 1980s as the Government cut tariffs on imports in economic restructuring, the TCFC sector last year went to the Government for help with a development strategy.

Now a draft strategy has been released with the proposal that the sector be exporting $1 billion of goods a year by 2008 -- up from $390 million at the end of last year.  The strategy seeks an upgraded image from a "sunset" sector, in order to attract skilled workers, managers and investors.

Norsewear chief executive Paul Spicer says that reaching the $1 billion target would make the sector one of the most important, if not the most important, manufacturing export industry in New Zealand.  He believes the target is realistic and achievable.  Mr Spicer, convener of one of the working groups developing the strategy, says the document was not designed to push all businesses to export.

What it did mean was that the non-exporters should supply those that do. The strategy also advocates an industry development organisation.  The body would get firms to co-operate so they could target new customers in new markets, build distribution capability, improve management practices and training, and develop an industry ethical behaviour code.

Earlier this month Mr Spicer chaired some consultation meetings around the country over the strategy. He was amazed at the pledges that came from the industry for the new body -- just out of the meetings they totalled $50,000.

The Government will also seed-fund the body to a maximum of $100,000.

The TCFC industries are still significant employers, despite the decimation that came from the tariff cuts. About 2000 firms employ 17,600 people.  Mr Spicer says 416 of the firms employ some 16,000 staff -- meaning the other 1500 are small companies.

Industry NZ sector specialist Evan Morch emphasises that the strategy and all its lofty targets have been set by the sector itself.  Industry NZ has been involved only in facilitating the process, he says, and the industry has driven it forward. He admits there have been sceptics over the Government's involvement.  But Mr Morch says there is already significant sector support for the goals.  Once it is endorsed, the strategy will help focus the decision-making of Industry NZ regional managers when sector firms seeks assistance in, for example, regional or cluster initiatives.

Another strategy convener, Robert Reid of the Council of Trade Unions, says that for 15 years successive Governments turned their backs on the sector and left the workforce on the scrapheap.  Employment has halved to just under 20,000 over that time.

But now the strategy, which has full union backing, could turn things around. Unions also support the call for an industry body and will help pay for it.  The lack of training for workers and management was also identified as a large obstruction to the sector's growth.  The strategy pushes the idea that sector businesses learn to work together -- such as by sharing overheads. Clusters are promoted.  Mr Spicer has already formed an export cluster with two other companies, simply through being introduced to others at the strategy meetings.

Glenn Keen, president of the now-defunct Apparel and Textile Federation, welcomes the initiative. The federation has gone into recess as the new industry development organisation looms.  "We have had a fair bit of input into the strategy," he says. "We have not had this degree of consultation in the past."  The strategy has lofty goals, and the question is how to make it work, he says. "If they follow through on the recommendations, we have got a chance.  "We are succeeding without that help at the moment. We are getting export growth and we aren't a sunset industry any more."

He says the sector now has few of the large Lane Walker Rudkin-sized industries left.  "There's a whole splurge of new businesses that are very small and quick to market; that is where the industry has gone.

One thing the strategy does not do is ask for higher import tariffs, which are currently set at 19% for most apparel and 15% for textile imports.  They have been frozen since the Labour-Alliance Government took power in 1999, and are due to stay in place until 2005. Mr Keen says the industry generally wants them retained at the level of New Zealand's major trading partners.  "Australia, Japan and the US especially have very high tariffs for clothing. Why should we open our doors when they are not opening up theirs?"

Mr Spicer agrees, saying the general view is that there should be a level playing field.  The Government has given no indication of what it will do once the tariff freeze ends, despite backing the strategy.  He says the industry may not be able to stop the tariffs going, but at least it now has a chance to plead its case at the highest levels of Government.

Mr Keen says that combined, the TCFC industries are still of reasonable size, despite the impression it is a sunset sector.  "You can talk about all the wine and shipbuilding and so on, but we are a hell of a lot bigger than all those -- and we shouldn't be given away."

Leading New Zealand wool and possum-fibre garment producers are working together on market opportunities in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Led by Paul Spicer of outdoor clothing manufacturer Norsewear, the "cluster" involves woollen underwear producer Finespun and technical mountain bikewear specialist N-Zone.  Spicer says the three will "share an umbrella - to build a new product range from the three companies' best products."

They're targeting the extreme outdoor market, "touching on fashion." The range is broad in styling and technical performance, from woollen intimate apparel and socks, to mid-layer garments and heavy outer-layer garments using wool and technical fibre inners.

The three companies couldn't be more different in terms of history and structure but the products are a near-perfect fit.  Norsewear is more than 40 years old, famous for its socks and rugged hikers' jumpers and jackets. Finespun, previously Lane Walker Rudkin Manufacturing, claims to make some of the world's finest woollen fabric. N-Zone, on the other hand, is "high technology and high energy" with product and graphics based around the mountain-biking subculture.

"The group approach gives us the opportunity to share some of the volumes we wouldn't be able to do individually, or our factories would be too specific to produce individually," says Spicer. "We can't go into those markets with just apparel. We need all the other bits to go with it. We need the technical strength."

Spicer says the cluster came about as a result of meetings of the Industry New Zealand-sponsored textile, clothing and footwear strategic partnership. As convener of the market access subgroup, Spicer was impressed to meet other companies with skills and products complementary to Norsewear's. He also found that collectively, their address book listed many of the top retailers globally.

Woollen products made in New Zealand have come a long way from chunky jumpers. Norsewear, for ex-ample, is making "very technical use of merino and possum," says Spicer.

A garment may have a 20.5-micron merino wool outer and a superfine 18-micron merino/possum inner in contrasting colours and may be black on the outside and natural possum on the inside, giving it "an amazing thermal quality but also adding a lot of style by the way of contrast colours."  Though not as technical as some of the wools Norsewear produces with high-tech inners, like Coolmax, it is "a very technical product," Spicer says. "It has got a bit of an edge to it. [It's] not just a tourist product."

The three companies' collaboration gives a large combined contingent of product and graphic designers. "I think we've got a heap of talent there," says Spicer. "We're cross-referencing on product development with one another's ranges as to what we think collectively is going to work."  Spicer says he's confident of some "quick wins" for the group, already with strong leads to follow up, particularly chain stores in Britain, Canada and the US. He doesn't rule out working under a single brand some time in the future.