Mirror maker thinks global

By ELLEN READ

Finding a niche in a competitive global market is the key to future success for a 55-year-old, third-generation Tauranga business.

Set up as a glass manufacturer by Os Bennett in 1949 in Christchurch, Bennett Mirror Technologies is a growing force in the highly specialised field of acrylic convex mirrors, in New Zealand and overseas.

Searching for a way to increase sales, Os Bennett built a rotational kiln for bending glass in 1962. Within a decade he was exporting convex mirrors to Australia.

Dedicated to new technology, he developed acrylic convex mirrors in 1976 to meet international demands.

Son Alastair joined the business from school, learning his craft on the factory floor and continuing the family's pride in teamwork and commitment to innovation.

He was on hand when his father moved the entire operation from the South Island to Tauranga in the 1970s. When Os Bennett retired in 1980, Alastair became managing director. He has now been joined by the third generation of Bennetts, Ben.

Today the 16-strong team exports 90 per cent of the 35,000 mirrors it makes a year.

Convex mirrors are common, but Bennett's strategy has been to supply top-quality mirrors for use in specialist fields - mainly prisons and airports.

"People are often looking for high-tech solutions but ours is a very simple, but successful, concept," said international marketing manager Chantelle Laurent, who joined the company last year with the brief to get it into the United States.

"That's going to be the future for the company, these niche areas where we don't have competition."

Made of polycarbonate steel and silver, the prison models are virtually indestructible. A special foam padding inside stops them from being shattered.

The aircraft docking mirrors enable pilots to park their planes without the aid of groundstaff with flags or expensive video technology.

In the US, sales have been led by the prison mirrors. Bennett now has a key distributor in there servicing the prisons and available to help push the products in other markets.

Thousands of the mirrors are already used in New Zealand, Australian and British jails.

Mangere is the only New Zealand airport site at present using Bennett's mirrors but Laurent hopes to sign a contract with Christchurch Airport soon.

With fuel prices rising and passenger numbers declining, airlines are looking increasingly for lower-cost solutions, she said.

In August she will travel to Brazil with a demonstration system for Brazil's airport authorities. Their main corporate arm, Infraero, is interested in buying the product.

The 90 airports in Brazil are a big opportunity for Bennett.

"If we can get 10 or so mirrors in each airport, then that's huge," Laurent said.

She has found that entering new markets in one particular niche allows the company to use the networks established as a stepping stone to other areas.

"For example, in the US we can say to any airports that are interested that we already have a distributor," she said.

Laurent, who herself began work in her family's business, enjoys the team atmosphere and commitment to people that Bennett enjoys as a family business.

"There's a whole family value and ethics in the way they run the company," she said.

Constantly wanting to learn more, she took part in the Go Global programme run by the University of Auckland Business School's incubator, The Icehouse.

It targets established companies looking to make the leap into global sales.

"I went to them to look for export expertise and to find ongoing networking opportunities," Laurent said.

That seems to have worked, as business is booming and she meets fortnightly with other Bay of Plenty firms who have done Icehouse courses.