Kia Kaha Clothing
Where to from here?
Kia Kaha fashion show group
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Kia Kaha continues to lead the way in the sports and street wear fashions in New Zealand and with the additio of golf and high fashion apparel has a growing international reputation. The three distinctive labels are now available through wholesale, retail, team wear and also through the internet – such as the Cambo experience has shown is 'scalefree' – a market without limits. In addition Kia Kaha shops also stock a range of of pounamu (greenstone), Paua jewellery, bone carvings, Māori artworks, paintings and traditional carvings.
Dan outlines how he sees things developing for the company in the future:
"We have indentified three different businesses within the one company – teamwear, wholesale and retail – that we're going to run as separate entities.
"We now have a manager overseeing the teamwear side of the business. Under him are the production people, sales representatives and so on. We want to build teamwear up as a self-funding stand-alone business based in Upper Hutt, where we're going to be upgrading the printing and the sewing machine facilities and adding an embroidery capability as well so we're not outsourcing.
The Kia Kaha store
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"On the wholesale side of things we've got a wholesale manager who's looking after all of the 300-odd shops in New Zealand – and that's only with Cambo at the moment. They haven't got Kia Kaha or the Charmaine Love items, so we'd expect that to lift up to at least 500 within the next months once all that range is in."
And then we have the internet side of it.
"So that's how we see the way forward. International distribution is quite important for us. There's a lot of interest and demand from overseas distributors, wanting to take our ranges to their countries. So a lot of homework has to go into that to make sure it's done correctly."
With the business growing to a stage where over 20 administration, retail and production staff are employed you might expect Dan to have more time to himself. However this is far from the truth.
"I've certainly brought people on to look after certain areas, but the fact is I like to be involved and find out exactly what's going on. So the actual physical time may be a bit less but I find that the mental time is the same. I'm consciously thinking ahead all the time."
"I guess I'm an entrepreneur. I've seen a market niche and an opportunity and gone for it. Things like 'risk taking' have definitely been there, and the 'never give up attitude' that people say has to be there. Passion and drive have been important things for me, though. In the end I wouldn't change anything – it's brought a lot of tough times but the rewards have been worth it."
Kia Kaha t-shirt design
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While Dan concedes that his degree course has undoubtedly contributed to the success of the company, he is convinced that the practical on-the-job learning has been the most influential contributor to the rapid growth of the business.
"When we started out my feeling was that the whole point about having a Māori label was to unify New Zealand in some way. Back then I used to go to some places with a few Māori T-shirts and would get rejected constantly because they thought it wasn't going to sell. There's been a change of attitude within mainstream New Zealand over the last 10 to 15 years. There's a pride in our heritage, pride in being New Zealanders and in the Māori element as well. It's incorporating where we've come from as a country, and it's now acceptable, and fashionable for people of non-Māori decent to wear the product."
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Dan Love, Kia Kaha
