Fabric tanks go on safari

By ELLEN READ

From downtown Auckland to isolated villages in North Africa, it's been a long journey for 200 New Zealand-made 20,000-litre fabric water tanks.

Covertex shipped the order in June after a chance website hit followed by 14 months of intensive customer relationship work.

"We persevered with [the customer] although we had no idea if they were just tyre-kickers. We had to educate them about the product and it paid off," general manager Matthew Bouzaid said.

It certainly did - the undisclosed buyer placed the company's largest ever order. Bouzaid was keeping the price close to his chest but said it meant a 70 per cent increase in production for his company, which has a $1.4 million annual turnover.

He said in a normal year Covertex would make a handful of the large flexible tanks used for storing or transporting fluids such as water, chemicals or food-stuffs. "We're a small company and this was a substantial order for us, certainly the largest single order we've ever seen."

Staff worked around the clock to complete the order within the three-month timeframe.

The company was first approached via its website last year and, after about a year of discussions, the order was finalised this March and the products were packed for export by the end of June.

The tanks will be used by the undisclosed North African country to supply water to outlying villages. The water will be used for horticulture, agriculture and for livestock.

Bouzaid said there had been some headaches in filling the order. "It's a typical problem for small Kiwi companies who are normally head down tail up just maintaining sufficient local work to keep going then suddenly to have to expand to produce 70 per cent of your annual turnover in three months is a big ask."

To manage, Covertex outsourced where possible and sought help from associate company Structurflex.

"We were able to use their premises and plant to work a night shift in order to operate round the clock," Bouzaid said.

"The last tank was finished the day we were packing the order, it was all hands to the helm and the staff came through and deserve credit for that."

Bouzaid formed Covertex in 1987. It's an offshoot of Structurflex (itself a spinoff from Sails and Covers, which his grandfather formed as a sail-making business in 1937).

Covertex products are made from a flexible coated fabric sourced from the United States and Europe. The fabric is engineered and welded with fused joins into products including inflatable air shelters, oil spill products, marker buoys, promotion inflatables, custom-made covers, tanks, bags and liners.

Covertex employs 12 staff and has operated for 15 years.

The company has also developed a large inflatable shelter for the UK Ministry of Defence to trial. It came about after Covertex built an air hangar which won the New Zealand Defence Industry Award of Excellence 2003.

Bouzaid said the shelter was still being assessed in the UK, but the market for the product was potentially large. "When you're talking products for military uses you're talking about a big worldwide market, so that is exciting for us."

In the past, Covertex has had assistance from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise which has helped boost its export market, now 30 per cent of its normal annual turnover.

Covertex