Kia Kaha Clothing
Growing the Business
Kia Kaha – hoodie, jacket and pants
(Click to enlarge)
By 1997 Dan and Charmaine were convinced that the business could sustain "a bit of an income," and started to work on it full time from their original retail premises in Petone.
"We started to do a lot more of what we call the 'team wear'. That's where people come in and order in bulk, and obviously get a better price, and we customise it in their colours and their preferred designs. We also started to wholesale and found that a lot of shops were interested in stocking our product,." explains Dan.
At that stage all of the company's production work was outsourced. In 1998 they developed their own website – a move which would position the company in what would become a growing international market.
"So we'd gone from a hobby to a fully blown business," says Dan. "We had everything in place. We started building and growing quite nicely and could start bringing on more people." A full-time assistant was employed to look after their Petone shop, and a new shop, with two more assistants, was opened in Wellington city.
