| 33 Peter Hay .itchens Ltd: th anniversary Richard Loader Leaders in cabinet manufacturing Apart from kitchens, Peter Hay Kitchens is also one of the biggest bathroom vanity manufacturers and one of the biggest general storage cabinet manufacturers in the country. MANUFACTURING Proudly supplying Peter Hay Kitchens with quality European edgebanding, specialised adhesives, cleaning and release agents. phone 09 278 7625 | web www.kantek.co.nz | email sales@kantek.co.nz GRANITE + ENGINEERED STONE Proudly Supporting Peter Hay Kitchens since 2008 Proud hardware supplier to Peter Hay Kitchens www.blum.com 621 Rosebank Road, Avondale, Auckland info.nz@blum.com | 09 820 5051 Visit our Auckland showroom to discover top quality Blum products and services and be inspired for your next home project. It was August 1973, Peter Hay, a young cabinet maker / cabinet maker machinist already 15 years into the industry, decided the time was right to be the master of his own destiny and established Peter Hay Kitchens – setting in motion a journey that is about to celebrate half a century of innovation and production. Initially operating on a small scale in Onehunga, producing one-o kitchens for mums and dads, the fifty-year Mourney has taken Peter Hay Kitchens to a 10,000 sqm highly automated factory in Wiri, producing a wide range of kitchen, laundry, bathroom and general storage products, primarily for other businesses. Karl O’Hanlon, joined the business in a senior leadership role in 2011, and says Peter was an early adopter of the economies of scale programmes that were being run in Europe with modular kitchens, industry standardisation and automation utilising CNC machinery. Significant change for the business came in 2011. Peter Hay Kitchens was manufacturing for one major company, at a time when there was significant cost pressure with imported kitchens coming in from China. Karl had been working as a key supplier to Peter Hay Kitchens for a number of years and was brought into the business to help create diversification and generate new revenue streams. ȊWith my experience of dierent markets and global trends we put it all together and that has resulted in what the business is today. Our revenue streams now include highrise construction, DIY retail stores, OEM brown box manufacturing for other brands, and we manufacture some components for Kaianga Ora. We don’t just make kitchen cabinets anymore. We are one of the biggest bathroom vanity manufacturers in the country, and one of the biggest general storage cabinet manufacturers in the country. “A lot of the household brands in this industry actually come out of this factory, including standardised product sold through a building network like Carters.” With a significant investment in automation, Peter Hay Kitchens utilises batch-one manufacturing techniques, where everything is an individual Mob tailored for a specific customer, whether it is a direct customer or through a second source. “We treat every single job, no matter how big or small, as a one-o in a batch one technique. Because of our machinery and automation we do all our own in-house software development. “We’ve been able to bring scale to that batch-one to deliver customised solutions at potentially lower cost. We’re a very helpful company and pride ourselves on the service aspect, because we genuinely care. Many of our sta have been here for a long time and have a very good understanding of our customers’ needs. “For example, our factory manager did his apprenticeship here. We try to tailor the experience for each one of our customers, even though each customer is very dierent, with dierent needs and requirements.ȋ With a team of sta, many of whom are long serving team members, the diverse range of roles includes health and safety, accountants, customer service, software and CAD development and operations, manufacturing, and an outsource of logistics. “Because we’re prepared to invest in technology, we’re probably class leaders in pretty much every one of the areas of cabinet manufacturing and present opportunities to sta that they may not get elsewhere. Peter is still very much part of the business and people can see his drive and passion towards pushing the business forward. “People can see a pathway, so the culture here is one of improvement and reward. As for our success, it is a will to be better every day, and we have a very motivated owner who loves his business as much as he did fifty years ago.”
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