Trading in NZ dollars
Another Palmerston-North based manufacturer, Tomorrow Today New Zealand Ltd, which designs and makes OBO field hockey goalkeeping equipment, is trading in New Zealand dollars to 45 countries.

Managing director Simon Barnett says trading in New Zealand dollars only buffers the company to a certain point. “Agents and importers will put their prices up but can choose to cut their margins – importers have taken higher margins on our products in the past few years, which we knew. It’s stengthened their companies, giving us stronger companies to partner with. At some stage however, the higher dollar will feed into higher prices for the consumer and this will have some effect on demand for our products.

“Because we founded the business on a strong competitive product, we tend to be price-setters rather than price-takers. Being able to sell in New Zealand dollars is a reflection of those strengths. We can cooperate with our partners and focus on other things.

“We’re riding the dollar out at the moment – it is hurting us in some markets. Anything above US65c, AUS90c, pound .35, or euro .52, then things get a bit tougher – we can live around these levels.

“When I was a kid, the New Zealand dollar bought a US dollar – now the world is a very much more competitive place.”

The dollar is driving extremely exacting practices at his company. “We’re facing a continuing need to do everything right – a high attention to customer needs, to detail in design – both form and function – and very efficient manufacturing techniques. Business is a lot harder.”

Simon Barnett says his company, which employs 18 people directly and has an annual turnover of about $4 million, has a history of design, innovation and change. “It’s a very expensive process and when the dollar is high it eats into your profits. It’s a catch-22 – but you have to do it.”

Tomorrow Today New Zealand Ltd is still going ahead with its planned launch of a range of protective cricket gear in the northern hemisphere in September. This range has been developed and tested over the last four years and is based upon market opportunities identified for the same high quality of product developed for the OBO hockey equipment. “It’s still business as usual, it would just have helped having another two or three years of a lower exchange rate.”