Your Business: Fashion designer finds lucrative niche

Caroline Marr's range is 100 per cent New Zealand made. She is determined to expand to Melbourne in the next two years. Photo / Natalie Slade

Caroline Marr, the entrepreneur behind The Carpenters Daughter (TCD) has carved out a distinct niche with her New Zealand-made clothing for curvy women.

Her clients include Cabinet minister Paula Bennett and actress Geraldine Brophy. From 2008 to 2010 she showed her collection at NZ Fashion Week, a first for a plus size clothing label.

The fashion retailer's customers are politicians and business leaders.

"They are all sorts of women, interested in fashion and not wanting a normal 'fat girl' look," says Marr. More than 50 per cent of New Zealand women are a size 14 and up, she says.

The Carpenters Daughter was given its name by Marr's parents. Her father, a pastor, is a capable carpenter. . He has made all the solid counters and stools in the stores.

It has been a tough year for TCD, which employs 27 staff. This has been partly due to the flat retail market, but the main problem, according to Marr, was that she was paying too much tax.

She admits she is more of a creative than a businesswoman.

Marr is now being advised by business mentor, Zac de Silva, who has said she should be achieving 15 per cent growth on turnover each year. The business is bringing in $3 million.

Marr is closing her Tauranga outlet, which will leave her with seven stores; her first shop in Mt Albert Rd is also her company HQ and home, her newest one is in Newmarket's Teed St shared with fellow designer, Pearl, and five others in Tirau, Takapuna, two in Christchurch, and one in Wellington.

The businesswoman, who was a size 24 when she started the business in September 1991, ranges her sizing from 12 to 24 because she thinks anything bigger is unhealthy.

The mother of two started out by making all her own clothes. She worked as a store detective for Smith & Caughey and Farmers and people would ask her where she got her outfits.

Marr is no longer the main designer. "I am the creative director and oversee what my young designer does," she says.

Sarah Jane Duff, hired straight after her AUT Design Fashion degree, has been with her for three years now.

In her 21st year of business, Marr is still ambitious. "We have settled in, we have got a niche here, but I want to capture more of the market."

TCD has pop-up stores in places like Gisborne and Hamilton, and Marr wants to have more of a presence in the country's largest towns. She is about to go on a scouting trip for a store in her birthplace, Dunedin, and is determined to expand to Melbourne in the next two years.

The TCD range is 100 per cent NZ- made, something Marr, a Chatham Island Maori, is adamant about. "We forget how good we are," she says. The businesswoman doesn't travel to source fabric, buying from NZ textile importers such as Charles Parsons and Global Fabrics.

TCD prices range from $235 to $350 for a dress to $125 for a t-shirt. "A lot of these women are businesswomen who lead other people, they are mentors, women in the community. They don't do casual ..." says Marr.

"It's a very rewarding job that I've got, helping women who come in and who are hard on themselves." She "styles them up" and they leave much happier, their confidence boosted.