Holiday hobby turns money-maker

George Wilkins in his shed at the back of his parents' house in Tauranga. Photo/Ruth Keber

Two budding entrepreneurs have veered away from their university training and are using their skills to make one-off pieces that you would normally find in your grandfather's shed.

George and Willy is a Tauranga-based business created by George Wilkins, 22, and Will McCallum, 23.

The two men finished their degrees at Otago in 2012 and ventured back to the Bay for the summer, when they decided to start building things as a holiday project.

Starting as a hobby to keep themselves busy through the summer, they decided to try selling their products. Their enterprise has since turned into a successful small business.

A child's swing was the first product the pair created and they have gone on to make other items, including project trestle desks, wall-mounted paper rollers, industrial clothing racks and cast concrete dog bowls.

"Items that are honest, timeless and robust, not suffering from brief moments of fashion," Mr Wilkins said. "Our aesthetic is grass roots and so are our ideals, we therefore work hard to produce products of quality using honest materials and collaborating with friends and businesses that match."

Mr Wilkins said that, growing up, he had spent a lot of time making different "bits and pieces" with his grandfather. Mr McCallum had been handy in the toolshed too.

During their university degrees, the pair had a design project where they had to build model helicopters.

"The project was to make something commercial, so we made these model helicopters and sold them to the Westpac Helicopter Trust in Wellington. We sold 10 of them, so that just got us excited about making and selling stuff.

"So that's why, when we got home, we thought let's have a go at this.

"Both of us went to uni knowing we wanted to learn business to help us with other stuff, not learn business to do business.

"To be honest, we didn't think it would lead to anything, we just thought we would do it for the uni holidays and we would move on to other things."

Mr Wilkins continued his studies during 2013, undertaking a masters in commerce, and would fly between the two regions to keep up with his studies and the new venture.

He said the products were initially sold over the phone and through word of mouth, but they were then able to get them into Paper Plane in Mount Maunganui and other speciality stores around New Zealand.

Currently, Mr McCallum is in New York working with a leading architect, David Howe Design, and in future the duo hope to expand to a bigger international market. They have taken on two workers to help keep up with demand.