Heeding kids' needs puts firm in comfortable spot

Hastings-based school furniture design and manufacturing firm Furnware is on our television screens in an advertisement for Vodafon.
Furnware managing director Hamish Whyte says Vodafone looked among its clients for a "hand-on-heart-type business" to feature in the ad. Furnware fitted that profile.
"We strive to improve the learning space, so children learn more," says Whyte.
Since the ad has been on air, parents have been approaching the company directly to buy chairs for their children to take to school.
The 70-strong business usually deals directly with schools, and has 60 per cent of the New Zealand market.
Whyte, who has a sales and marketing background, bought Furnware in 1993 when it was a successful company, but its strength was based on relationships rather than products.
He recognised the business lacked design understanding, so in 2002 development of the Bodyfurn range began.
"I started to appreciate research was fundamental to great design," says Whyte.
Research for what would culminate in award-winning Bodyfurn ergonomic furniture lasted two years, carried out predominantly in Hawke's Bay school classrooms. During that time the business transformed from a manufacturer into "a goldmine of knowledge", says Whyte, because "no one else in the world had gone into classrooms".
"We took a business that was fundamentally sound, based around a $30 chair, and turned it into a research-focused company based around a $130 chair - and we sell three times as many chairs.
"Our laboratory is real schools, and that's your No8 wire approach that New Zealanders love."
Traditional school furniture did not meet children's needs - it was built to be cheap, indestructible and able to be stacked. Bodyfurn chairs flex to accommodate the three main positions children adopt in the classroom and come in different heights to suit individual requirements.
"The roll-on effect of that is significantly calmer children and quieter classrooms. We eliminate fidgeting, so they have a greater opportunity to learn."
Its product is not the cheapest, Whyte says, but that does not hinder its success. Furnware used to sell one or two classroom sets a year to the average New Zealand school but now it fits out whole schools over five years.
Furnware's biggest growth market is in Australia, where it has a Melbourne office.
Whyte says the company will have 10 staff in Australia by year end, and have 30 per cent growth this year, led by the Australian business.
"Every day we get five or six more deals from Australia."
In the present financial year, 90 per cent of Furnware's business was with the domestic market, 5 per cent with Australia and 5 per cent with the rest of the world.
The figures for this year will be 70 per cent with the New Zealand market, 25 per cent with Australia and 5 per cent with the rest of the world.
Furnware's other export destinations are Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Middle East. In the past financial year exports formed 10 per cent of Furnware's business, and that is expected to grow to 35 per cent this year. "I believe we will double the size of the business in 18 months' time," Whyte says.
"We are quoting schools everywhere - Japan, Canada, America, South Africa - and the local market share is growing as well."
Whyte expects to employ another dozen manufacturing staff in Hastings by the end of the year.
"Our current growth is tracking to reach our goal of $20 million in turnover within 18 months"
Whyte says the company's continuing research into learning spaces and product development will keep it ahead of the mass market.
"Most competitors focus on volume, not niche, and with our attitude towards finding the best classroom or learning space, we are different to the majority."