Hobby gives scope for the good life

By ELLEN READ

A passion for colourful craft, seeing an untapped market and a desire to live the good life are the mainstays of the business just named Telecom Home Business of the Year.

Scopes NZ, a Kerikeri home business run by Andrew and Robyn Leary, designs, manufactures and sells kaleidoscopes.

Their products are sold worldwide through galleries, by mail order from their own website and in person from their home-based Gallery and Kaleidoscope Garden.

"Andrew made the first kaleidoscope for me 20 years ago and it opened a window to a new future for us," Robyn Leary said.

"It is the dream of many people to be able to combine their interests with their working and home life. Through Scopes NZ, we run a profitable international business making a craft that we love, and all the while enjoying the idyllic Kiwi lifestyle at home."

Andrew Leary said: "Robyn said, 'make me one' so I made one and there was immediate interest from people - friends and family that came around."

That initial present turned into three or four, which turned into contacting retailers in Wellington - where the couple were living - to see if they had a marketable product.

They did, so Andrew bought some mirrors and a glasscutter from the local hardware store and set to work.

"I stumbled my way, though, figuring it out," he said.

Initial designs were deemed too heavy and expensive by the retailers so he refined the product.

"I went home and made a smaller one and they really liked that. So I made some specialised tools and made the first model that we actually took to the retailers. That was 20 years ago," Leary said.

The Wellington market embraced the product and the couple were approached by a commission salesman wanting to take the product nationwide.

"We worked with him until he retired and now we do all the distributing and everything ourselves from here in Kerikeri," Leary said.

They no longer use agents, preferring to take care of retailers personally.

The move north was made in 1999 after a family holiday in the Bay of Islands.

"We decided that we were ready for a move. We only had a small property in Wellington and I'd built as many sheds on it as I could."

A summer campervan holiday showed them how much tourism there was in the north and the decision was made to shift the business and capitalise on the glut of visitors and holidaymakers.

"We'd be driving along on holiday laughing and saying, 'there's another campervan, there's another sale' so we decided to sell up and make a move," Leary said.

The Learys make thousands of kaleidoscopes each year - the smaller ones sell in kitset form, and production is streamlined and mechanised.

The larger models - up to 200 a year - Andrew builds by hand. A local lack of correct machinery drove him to develop and make his own vacuum coating machine to produce aluminium-coated mirrors.

"I built it 10 years ago because the plant that we had access to was other people's so I couldn't say, 'really, I want this over here, that over there and if we got rid of that it would suit my purpose'," Leary said.

He has also patented an optic system for some kaleidoscope models.

An overseas market took several years to establish. The couple have attended kaleidoscope conventions in the United States for eight years, but feel that they have been taken seriously in the past couple of years.

"We've found faults in kaleidoscopes made by Americans, for example, that we would have been pulled up on, so we have found that frustrating," Andrew Leary said.

"We're being told off about having or not having this feature when other people are the same. But after years of going over there, we're getting past that and gaining our own acceptance in the fraternity."

Plans include continuing to strive for the perfect kaleidoscope and hopefully licensing the design for some models overseas.

"I think you could sell way more than I could contemplate making. Particularly the larger garden ones outside," Leary said.

Outside models are made of PVC and painted, but the small ones are produced using ancient swamp kauri - a twist which adds to the kiwi flavour, Leary said.

There are also potential health and therapeutic benefits to investigate. Leary said research from Japan showed looking through kaleidoscopes calmed brainwaves.

Home Business New Zealand managing director and competition judge Heather Douglas says Scopes NZ impressed because the Learys had developed an interest into a professional business with multiple revenue streams.

"What started as a unique product sold through traditional retail channels has developed into an international business with a complementary tourism stream from their Gallery and Kaleidoscope Garden. That demonstrates lateral thinking."

www.kaleidoscopes.co.nz