The Pridex Group has its origins in 1982 when it commenced manufacturing, selling and installing, kitchen cabinets. Like many similar owner operated businesses, growth was initially constrained by limited resources, but from the outset, a vital difference was the clear vision management had of the future and the actions required to achieve sustainable growth.

This vision over the years, has resulted in a number of factory moves to larger and larger premises as the Group invested in markets, production facilities and human resources to support the growth strategy.

The most significant of these actions was initiated during 2004 with a decision to expand production to service other markets, as well as to increase volumes significantly in the traditional markets. This began with a factory move to the current 3400 m2 manufacturing facility at 47 Railway Road, followed by the acquisition of state of the art CNC controlled equipment capable of vastly increased production capacity.

As expected, this expansion required considerable input both from a financial and managerial input. To address this, the company attracted input from an external investor group who have been able to provide both financial and managerial needs, thus facilitating the next growth phase in the companies life cycle

In late 2004, as part of the strategy to establish a market presence nationally, a kitchen showroom in South Auckland was acquired to complement the existing outlets in Palmerston North and Wellington CBD. As a consequence of the success of these outlets, a franchise model has been developed which anticipates rapid modular growth in representation across New Zealand, in the next five years. The latest development is the opening of the Upper Hutt showroom in March 2006.

To achieve the goal of product diversification, in late 2005, the Group acquired Origin Office Furniture a significant producer of a wide range of Melteca office furniture designed mainly for the corporate and home office market. Whilst the different market channels will diversify the Group, production facilities have been rationalised to a single manufacturing site at 47 Railway Road, Palmerston North.

Further product diversification will see the group develop a range of bathroom vanities, which, too will be made in the existing facility.

In planning for further growth, the Group has acquired the manufacturing premises situated at 39 Railway Road. Apart from adding a further 2000m2 manufacturing capacity in an immediately adjacent facility, the Group regards this as a highly strategic investment to underpin future growth.

Kitchens: Historically, kitchens manufactured have been custom designed to individual customer specification. The process of custom making kitchens has a number of advantages and disadvantages in comparison to manufacturing standard products.

Pridex Kitchens currently supplies two main markets, notably the construction industry and the end user market (largely based on renovations). The construction market is important to the company as although the margins are tighter than the end user market, the potential for high volume production runs and the associated benefits of large-scale production, provide a very important volume base. On the other hand, the end user market is a more fussy market but with slightly higher returns.

Office Furniture : Products are all based on particle and MDF board which is cut, edged and drilled in a variety of configurations to create and range of desk, workstations and storage cupboards. The market in principally to the office furniture resellers such as Office Max and Corporate Express

Bathroom Vanities: This is a new market channel for the Group. Further details will be released as they become known.

Each market has different challenges but it is important for the incumbent to fully embrace the view that “the customer is king”