Hard slog turning a pest into a profit

Greg Howard shows off his possum-skin golf and riding gloves. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Waikanae businessman Greg Howard's products are a local variation on the fabled silk purse that was made from a sow's ear. Howard supplies top-quality sports gloves made from local possum skin, and has just netted an order to supply New Zealand equestrian champion Mark Todd's gear and clothing brand, to be distributed in Europe via global equestrian product distributor Westgate EFI.

The Todd connection is a great coup for the brand, says Howard, because the four-time Olympic gold medallist, who will compete at the 2012 London Games, has a reputation in his sport comparable to Tiger Woods' status in golf.

The order was timely: things have been tough recently and Howard, who runs the company alone, jokes about having to take on a second job. A rainy start to summer saw his bread-and-butter local sales fall, and the credit crunch has slowed offshore orders.

Howard, 52, set up his company Planet Green in 1994, but it was 10 years before he established the TrueGrip brand and broke into the lucrative North American market. A trip to the US netted orders from global sports brands SMT, Krank Golf and Philadelphia Sports, which sell them under their own brands, and he supplies a European distributor of New Zealand products, Paua Golf.

A normal pro golf glove made of a mixture of synthetic and leather would last about five or six rounds, says Howard, but his can last up to 40. They allow the skin to breathe, keep out the rain and, because of a tanning process developed by the Indonesian manufacturer, have an exceptionally good grip.

The Silver Ferns have used strips of specially made skin as "hand wipers" to give their hands a better grip, and wipe away sweat.

The gloves, which sell in New Zealand, Holland and Australia under the TrueGrip brand, have had their share of international attention. In US magazine Sports Illustrated they were voted one of the 14 "coolest new products" selected from thousands at the 2006 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, and at the 2004 Buick Open in Michigan they were trialled by 10 top international players and passed with flying colours during the rainy tournament.

Howard isn't the first person to have begun using the pest to make designer gear: the best known is Snowy Peak chief executive Peri Drysdale, a pioneer of possum fur in clothing with her brand Untouched World.

Possum fur now sells for about $90 a kilogram, the equivalent of about 20 pelts, up from about $40 a kilogram in 1999, while a trapper gets about $14 per plucked possum skin. Howard, who gets his skins from various suppliers around the country, reckons a trapper could earn about $2000 a week.

But despite the quality products,

rising pelt prices and the damage the country's estimated 50-70 million possums do by eating native forest and other vegetation, the industry has yet to really take off in New Zealand.

Unsurprisingly, Howard is against the use of the possum-killing poison 1080 because it quickly ruins the skin and fur. Instead of paying $80-odd million each year on the bait, he suggests the Government use that money for bounties for trappers to get the industry growing.

The possum control programmes using 1080 kill between three million and nine million possums a year, which means about $9 a possum is "left on the forest floor".

Howard should know. In 2000, at the request of then-Regional Development Minister Jim Anderton, he investigated the potential employment the possum industry could provide. Howard says he's heard nothing since.

Howard has mostly self-funded Planet Green because he's had little success getting investors on board. "People say, 'Great idea, but I'm not paying'."

His first and so far only investor, an American, pulled out after the pair disagreed over the marketing focus. Howard believed the gloves were top of the range and should be sold and priced accordingly.

He also wanted to focus on what he calls the "greenie" aspect of the gloves. Although the manufacturing process doesn't involve any special eco-friendly methods, Howard admits, he focuses on the fact that possums are a pest.

A trained stonemason, Howard first saw the opportunity to make the gloves while doing consultancy work on the employment potential of the possum industry for a Wellington iwi. A trip to Asia revealed that the anti-fur campaign was too strong to produce much demand for possum pelts. However, Howard believed the skin had potential.

"I got some tanned and thought, 'You're joking, this is worth at least 10 bucks and there are at least 50 million [possums] out there, let's go'."

Tests showed the skins were softer and stronger than other leathers.

Local demand kicked in when Howard appeared on TV selling the gloves at the 2001 New Zealand Golf Open. He also scored an order from Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes crew for the 2001 America's Cup, and when Tiger Woods played in the 2002 New Zealand Open at the Paraparaumu golf course, Howard sold $22,000 worth of gloves in four days.

The head professional at the Paraparaumu Golf Club, Neil Munro, praises the gloves' longevity, their softness and the fact they "fit Kiwi hands".

The TrueGrip gloves make up about 30 per cent of sales in the club's golf shop, which stocks all the top brands, and most people who buy one come back for another, he says.

However, Howard knows his biggest market is offshore - it's just a matter of getting there. After being accepted for a $40,000 Trade & Enterprise New Zealand grant he made two overseas trips, but the grant was dependent on his spending half that amount before NZTE shelled out its share. Howard couldn't afford another offshore trip, so has lost the grant.

He also sees opportunities for making other possum leather products, such as wallets, key rings, and gloves for other sports. At the moment Howard sells 500-600 gloves a month but he reckons there's no reason why he couldn't sell 50,000 a month.

His main problem as a one-man band is marketing, but he's determined not to give up. He's negotiating with companies in Scandinavia, Singapore and Japan, although he concedes that the economic climate has slowed those plans.

But Howard won't give up. "I just believe in the product. It's the best skin to use for gloving, it's helping to save forests, it could create employment and export industries. "And if I give up, six months later someone else would be in there."