Sports Icon Collapses – But Liquidators See Hope

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 February 2011

Sports Icon Collapses – But Liquidators See Hope

One of New Zealand's iconic sports companies, Silver Fern Sports Ltd, has gone into liquidation after 69 years of continuous business.

The company is the owner in New Zealand of the registered trade marks “Silver Fern” and "Kiwi" under several classifications. The brands are used on garments and sporting goods.

Silver Fern Sports Ltd started out in 1942 manufacturing hand-stitched leather goods, including internationally approved competition rugby and rugby league balls, soccer balls, basketballs, and a range of leather goods. Their leather balls came with a guaranteed hand stitched quality assurance and were endorsed by the IRB, the IRL, and the NZRU through the years.

Successive owners of the company included the late All Black halfback Lindsay Colling, who further developed rugby equipment used by national and international teams and clubs. In later years the sales mix became more dominated by sports clothing and team wear.

The company was placed into liquidation as a result of cash flow problems, ironically at a time when demand for "NZ made" appears to be on the brink of a comeback. As a result, the liquidators don’t want to fire sale the business: A high level of interest is being shown in it, and they are hopeful it can rise again.

Barry White, of Fisher White & Associates, the liquidators, says there is an interesting wrinkle to the story – “The liquidation isn’t the end; it’s being seen as an opportunity for clothing manufactures in New Zealand to reclaim some of the ground that was lost to China.”

White says that Chinese manufacturers have raised prices close to parity with New Zealand, and local manufacturers can match them in value; minimum order quantities often make it uneconomic to have custom and niche-market goods made in China. As well, the lead times have increased to several weeks longer than Kiwi companies could offer while NZ made comes with direct communication and faster reacting quality control.

So White believes that after years of decline and job-loss, it is becoming more attractive and profitable to make the garments in New Zealand.

ENDS

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