Doors open as firm expands

Former Bay of Plenty Exporter of the Year Stainless DownUnder has beaten the recession by adding a new product range and tripling production.
The innovative Katikati manufacturer formed a sister company, Kiwi Closures, that made aluminium watertight and weathertight doors and sliders, hatches, and windows - and has gone a long way to cornering the worldwide superyacht market.
Stainless DownUnder was already well known in the luxury boat sector for its shiny stainless steel sliders and doors, hatches, portlights, bollards and other marine hardware.
"We can offer our clients twice as much product, and we've made use of economy of scale by sharing equipment in the factory and allocating the appropriate work to each company," said Andrew Lilly, managing director of Stainless DownUnder and Kiwi Closures.
"We've taken business from offshore competition - we can offer service, quality and a credible sales team - and the recession has worked in our favour. As things slowed down, we were able to control our growth," Mr Lilly said.
During 2009 Stainless DownUnder's turnover halved as the United States market dried up but now the company is bigger than it was before the recession.
Mr Lilly said Kiwi Closures is "darn near as big as Stainless DownUnder" and between them they have increased production three times over the past 15 months.
The skilled factory staff fell from 14 to 10 but Mr Lilly has re-built the team to 14 and is looking to hire four more over the next four months as the workload increases.
Stainless DownUnder was established by Andrew and Suzanne Lilly in 2001 and they formed Kiwi Closures two years ago with two Americans, Dan Thomson and Jared Carroll, who operated a sales company Mutiny Bay Marine Group in Kalispell, Montana.
Mr Thomson had earlier owned Pacific Coast Marine which made aluminium doors for superyachts and became Stainless DownUnder's distributor until late 2008. Now Mutiny Bay is the worldwide sales representative for Kiwi Closures and Stainless DownUnder.
Mr Thomson made the suggestion of manufacturing complementary aluminium products when he met Mr Lilly at the Amsterdam Boat Show in 2009.
"Dan and Jared know the boatyards and the people who work there. It made sense to form an equal partnership and new company, but always marketing the two businesses together," Mr Lilly said.
He said the demand for stainless steel and aluminium superyacht products was 50/50 and they fitted in well. "The stainless steel goes on the aft (rear) of the boats for the glitz and glamour, and the more functional aluminium doors down the sides of the superstructure."
The Katikati-based companies are presently supplying six superyacht projects - two each in Greece, Turkey and Chile - and a 39m Explorer Motor yacht being built in New Zealand.
Mr Lilly said "it won't be too long before orders are rolling again in United States" as the economy recovers.
He said one of the reasons the stainless steel marine products market slowed was that some owners felt the world didn't want to see money spent on luxury items during a recession.
The new superyachts being built are 40- 120m in length. Stainless DownUnder and Kiwi Closures can supply up to 200 different doors and hatches on the bigger projects - including up to 14 sets of automatic sliding doors.
Kiwi Closures' aluminium range provides a variation with louvred vents, quick-acting hinged pantograph doors similar to the ones on aircraft, and security doors with ballistic panelling and retinal scanning capacity.
The doors are both watertight and weathertight and certified by Lloyds Register. During the tests, the doors must remain watertight in three metre deep water, therefore sealing off areas in the boat and the weathertight door must survive a hose attack at a particular pressure and distance.
The Kiwi Closures doors are made from one aluminium billet/sheet, 50-75mm thick, and machined by Gamminco in Maleme St. The doors are also garnet blasted to roughen up the surface for painting, normally white.
After the doors are completed, they are sent from Katikati either primed or with a finished coat. "The aluminium is painted and the guys have had to understand that process," said Mr Lilly.
"It's a new skill and element to our manufacturing process, and it's been a smooth transition. Stainless steel is still a harder product to work with its laser cutting, folding and fabrication," he said.
The success of Kiwi Closures meant Mr Lilly had to extend the Marshall Rd factory for a third time, after moving into the new premises 3years ago.
The work space has now tripled from 600sq m to 1800sq m, reflecting the business growth. "We've stuck with the superyacht market because that's one we know," said Mr Lilly.
"We have doubled our product range, we can come up with customised solutions, and can market strongly throughout the world.
"The new business has worked out well," he said.