Sustainable business key to Design Mobel success

By GRAHAM SKELLERN
Tauranga bed and furniture maker Design Mobel has been maintaining conservation and environmental practices for 20 years but its managing director Dave MacFarlane still feels they can do more.
"We are always seeing ways to look after the environment and to improve on what we are doing. Sustainability is important to us and we have practised it from day one," Mr MacFarlane, who established Design Mobel in 1987, said.
Over that time the company, which uses native timber for its slat beds and bedroom furniture and recycles waste product, has been a leader in establishing sustainable business systems.
Design Mobel staff's commitment was again recognised when they collected the Supreme Award at the Bay of Plenty Sustainable Business Network gala dinner in Tauranga's Sebel Trinity Wharf Hotel last night.
It was the second time Design Mobel had taken home the top award, sponsored by Environment Bay of Plenty. The company triumphed at the inaugural awards in 2003 and last year it took out the productivity category.
Collecting the prize in front of nearly 300 guests, Mr MacFarlane drove home the message that sustainable business should be the norm, not the exception.
During the past 20 years, Design Mobel has donated 60,000 trees to the local region - replacing the timber used on every bed and bedroom suite the company has sold. This year up to 6000 trees will be given away, most of them going to schools around the North Island through the Environmental Education Resource Sustainability Trust programme.
Among other practices, Design Mobel uses all its timber waste and offcuts by trimming them down to strips - after removing the defects - and fusing them to produce a furniture suite.
Lately, the company worked on its own economic sustainability after suffering a 15 per cent drop in sales. "We had to change our distribution system to have a sustainable future," Mr MacFarlane said.
So it decided to sell direct by opening its own branded shops called Okooko. The first one opened in Hong Kong five weeks ago and "is already miles ahead of budget".
The Wellington store opened three weeks ago and Philadelphia follows on October 5.
Mr MacFarlane said seven more Okooko stores were planned for the east coast of the United States over the next three years.
"It's a massive market over there. We have done our research and I've no doubt the product will work," he said.
Two other Tauranga-based companies became category winners - Opus International Consultants and Generation Developments, a land developer and builder which is celebrating its 10th birthday this month.
In the past five years, the number of houses built by Generation has increased from 30 to 200 a year. The productivity gains have been achieved through creating a system that guarantees price and construction time.Winners:
Sustainable Business of the Year: Design Mobel.
Rotorua District Council Trailblazer, large business: Opus International Consultants; runner-up Energy Options, Whakatane.
Tauranga City Council Trailblazer, small business: Catalyst R and D, Rotorua; runner-up Bake Shack, Tauranga.
Western Bay of Plenty District Council Trailblazer, not for profit: James St School, Rotorua; runner-up Rotorua District Council.
OfficeMax Emerging large business: Intalok Solid Timber Homes, Rotorua; runner-up Whakatane Beacon.
Ricoh Emerging small business: Aotearoa Breweries, Kawerau; runner-up Bayfair Shopping Centre Management.
Comvita New Zealand Sustainable design and innovation: Advanced Traffic Supplies, Opotiki; runner-up Ngati Umutahi Marae, Matata.
NZTE Productivity: Generation Developments.