50 | Virginia Wright Business built on family’s heritage Rembrandt Fine Arts supplies a wide variety of homeware to retailers throughout the country. Rembrandt Fine Arts REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Named after one of the world’s most famous painters, the Napier-based homeware company Rembrandt Fine Arts was incorporated by Dutch immigrant in 1968, in recognition of the heritage they shared. After World War Two, wanting to leave everything as far behind him as he possibly could, Con came to New Zealand where he soon put the skills as picture framer which he’d learnt from his father to good use. “He met my grandmother-Oma in Lyttelton but they soon moved to Whakatane which is where the business first began in 1968,” says his grandson Conrad Rieter (36yrs), “My father Leon was born there but they moved to Napier when he was a toddler. He went to work for my grandfather - Opa as soon as he left school, making the picture frames and mouldings they sold then, and he’s still the General Manager.” Conrad himself is now the third generation in the family business, with the official title of Project Manager, in the company where he worked through many a school holiday. The manufacturing and supplying of picture frames to retailers throughout New Zealand, along with mirrors and artworks, remained their core business until the early 2000’s. It was when the cost of manufacturing had them looking offshore, and they started importing a lot of the frames and mirrors they had previously made themselves, that the business began to expand into a more diverse range of homewares. “People still bring their pictures in to be framed, and we still do fine art, and supply companies like Briscoes with wholesale picture frames as we’ve done for many years, but now our business includes homewares and furniture as well,” says Conrad. With a solid customer base built up over many years they had ready clients for their expanded range. To begin with they kept within the confines of matched home décor, adding things like cushions and recipe book holders to their usual range. But as time went by both their customer base and their inventory expanded. “We now have 1,600 SKUs and over 100,000 items in stock that range from a three-seater sofa to a matching candlestick and trinket box, as well as our usual artwork, mirrors and picture frames,” says Conrad. The expansion was a logical response to what their sales reps were seeing in the shops they supplied: occasional chairs, sofas, coffee tables, bedside tables and other furniture. By 2011 their expansion had snowballed to an extent that still takes Conrad by surprise occasionally. It’s a long way from clocks, sconces and beautiful Christmas decorations to the quality leather sofas, impressive wine cabinets, and contemporary consoles they now also keep in stock, but their core business remains the same: supplying wholesale to retail mum-anddad shops throughout New Zealand. “Most of our customers are like us, relatively small, family run businesses and we really enjoy working with them,” says Conrad. Now the world has opened up again the team at Rembrandt are looking forward to getting back to visiting the factories scattered through South-East Asia where their goods are manufactured, and meeting new suppliers. “We have a core range of suppliers, a lot of them have been with us from the start and we’ve got good relationships with them. Trust is a really important part of our business, and we trust our suppliers to source quality products to work with, at the same time as we keep an eye on not only the quality of the product but the conditions it’s made in. “We like visiting ourselves and getting to know our suppliers not just meeting them at Trade Shows which is what many people do,” says Conrad. With their expanded stock came a need for more space and Rembrandt has recently worked with Coresteel to expand their 4400sqm warehouse space to 6100sqm. “It’s a great space, which they’ve only just finished building with all the plumbing and wiring completed. “It makes the most of the land available which is what we wanted, and it’s already quite full. We’re really pleased with it.” says Conrad. But there’s still room to add a few more of the sort of items Rembrandt Fine Arts enjoy bringing in to meet their customers’ wide variety of needs from one end of the country to the other. Steven Hill Registered Electrician DOMESTIC • COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL • 021 111 3347 wattsup02@yahoo.com M. E. doing a power of good
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