Wanganui business Axiam Plastics is gaining a worldwide reputation for doing what other manufacturers deem impossible, says the company business development manager Kevin Jones.
The company scooped the supreme award at the Plastics Industry Biennial Design Awards in Auckland last month.
Its prize-winner was the netted plastic skin that covers a newline of expensive office chairs being sold in the United States.
Judges said it extended plastics injection moulding boundaries.
The design work for the plastic skin was done by Wellington's Formway studio, in conjunction with a multinational plastic supplier and one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the US.
Designing was only the first step though - the component still had to be made.
"Despite considerable research and investment the customer was still not sure it was possible until the first part was handed to them when they arrived at Axiam's door for trials," Mr Jones said.
The "Be" chairs were released about three months ago.
They sell for about US$1000 and are popular.
Axiam Plastics employs 50 people, making plastic components for all kinds of products.
They include the Bodyfurn school chairs in common use, the fire and safety helmets made in Heads Rd by Pacific Helmets, and the theatre lights used in the Royal Wanganui Opera House, Te Papa and large theatres worldwide.
As well as manufacturing parts itself, Axiam has a design team contracted to produce prototypes for other manufacturers.
Mr Jones and a project engineer are part of that team.
Both have been in the plastics industry for 30 years and are largely self taught.
This year's plastic industry awards were the biggest yet for the Wanganui company.
It won three golds, a silver and a bronze in five different categories.
Axiam started entering the awards in 2000. The company won a supreme award in 2002 and had already started working on an entry for 2012.
As well as its plastics factory in Somme Parade, Axiam has two other plants in Wanganui.
Called Axiam Diecasting and Axiam Engineering, they employ 100 staff between them and make metal components.
Manufacturing in New Zealand wasn't easy, Mr Jones said, and success often depended on making something that large commodity manufacturers struggled with.
Having large international clients was generally good, but it could cause problems for a small company like Axiam when there were fluctuations in demand.
Being based in a small provincial city could also be an obstacle. Mr Jones said it just meant Axiam had to be twice as good as everyone else.
