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kitchens & bathrooms
LIMITS TO BOOMING BUSINESS
Back to the retailers and merchants now and in terms of bathrooms, Louise Cook, Category Manager FOW at Fletcher Building Distribution, is also seeing “really good growth” across commercial, residential, as well as from retirement homes.
Turning to the obvious pinch points, Louise confirms: “We’re seeing some issues in terms of getting product here, mainly around the bigger ticket items. We are also seeing pricing going up due to the price of materials and freight.
“So, there are definitely issues, but we’ve got such a wide range of suppliers and offers in New Zealand that we can always offer alternatives where possible.”
Customer management can take some of the pain away in many cases, however, says Louise: “The problem is how long will it last? We’re certainly not seeing [the situation] changing any time soon.”
Talking pinch points, Gary Woodhouse, GM Ops & Marketing at PlaceMakers, chips in here: “I think the one thing that I’d add is that I think everyone’s just surprised by the fragility of the supply chain in New Zealand!”
Fully realising and comfortable with New Zealand being
“a small country at the bottom of the world”, Gary remains surprised at the effect shipping is having in terms of our supply chain, both from a timeliness and a cost perspective.
“We’re seeing price increases at a rate we’ve never seen before,” he says.
None of that comes as a surprise to Mark Bruce of Designmarked: “What’s top of mind? Probably logistics. There are a lot of delays on product out there, which is a new twist for us at this time of year.
Instead of “gearing up for the Christmas rush” Mark and many in the specialist kitchen & bath industry, in general, are “putting the brakes on ... because not all our suppliers can guarantee product.”
Ordering products much further out can help but, reading between the lines, this still isn’t a guarantee that a project will come in on schedule.
As the NKBA’s VP, Mark is keen to get across that as an organisation NKBA is “spending a lot of time making sure our members are aware of what suppliers are experiencing and trying to emphasise the need to be patient.
“It’s the designers’, the manufacturers’ responsibility not to put tight timelines on because that’s just setting the suppliers up to fail and beating your chest doesn’t mean you’re going to get the product, because the product won’t be there!”
RESTRAINTS OF THE TRADE
Another limiting factor being seen across just about every industry at the moment is skilled labour.
With Mitre 10’s installed solutions kitchens these days “upwards of 60%, maybe more”, Melanie Gallo says the
labour situation is “definitely challenging. But we have strong relationships with our installers and some of those installers are growing their teams to keep up with the increased demand.
Made in New Zealand
For Clearlite and Athena, being local is paying additional dividends for the company in the midst of the pandemic.
GM of Athena and Clearlite, Tony de Ruiter, says that while the company isn’t immune to what’s going on in the rest of the world, local manufacturing is a key advantage.
“If we’ve got resin, which comes out of Australia, then we can produce shower trays and baths in various shapes and sizes, so it gives us quite a bit more flexibility.”
“If we’ve got acrylic, we can put a mould in the machine and produce the product,” he adds.
“About 70% of what we sell is either made by us in our Glenfield factory in Auckland or it’s made by a local supplier.”
The company’s hinged and pivoting shower door sets themselves are made in the North Shore factory, the aluminium is extruded down in Hamilton and the PVC seals are done in Avondale with other components also made locally.
“We’ll never be the cheapest but, equally, we make sure we’ve got good quality products at a fair price,” says Tony de Ruiter. “Manufacturing trusted products using quality materials is
crucial to ensure our products are made to last.
“Overall, it’s about being a responsible manufacturer with an
understanding of the New Zealand consumer.”
https://clearlite.co.nz/ https://athena.co.nz/
26 NZHJ | AUGUST 2021
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