The company was started by father and son Don and Tim Symon who were joined by a group of investors last year to accelerate growing the business at the Phillipstown site.
So far 14 whole-garment knitting machines, each fed by six to eight spools of yarn, are computer programmed to put out a garment every 50 minutes to 1.5 hours.
About 500 to 700 garments are being made a week with plans to step this up into a 24 hour shift operation to double production as sales increase.
Acrux produces mid-micron workwear in a hoodie, quarter zip and crewneck range with the German-designed technology also turning out fine wool knitwear and thermals from merino fibres.
A large order of 800 hooded jerseys was supplied to fishing giant Sealord and the range is being stocked at Mitre 10’s Papanui branch with a supplier agreement just signed with ITM.
The robotics putting out a single garment without seams have allowed the company to make them at a competitive price.
Chief executive Tim Symon said the main knitting of the garments was completed without manual labour, with only zips, some accessories and end-of-stage steaming and logos carried out by machinists.
‘‘The machine knits all of this and it’s almost like a 3D printer. It’s a manufacturing process that removes the labour component out of the cost structure. Which is why it became viable to bring manufacturing back here because the problem with local manufacture has always been the cost of labour. You have people offshore in South East Asia who are making next to nothing to make clothes and over here for all the right reasons we pay a living wage.’’
Mr Symon said fewer machinists were needed, but work was being created for higher paid programmers and technicians with ‘‘future focused’’ skills to set up and finetune the complicated machines.
‘‘There have been a number of local manufacturing business crumble over the past few years, but even back in the 1980s Lane Walker Rudkin was a huge company employing a lot of people making a lot of garments yet that shut down more or less overnight. There’s always been a little bit of manufacturing industry here, but it’s just got harder and harder. These machines had been in our mind for five or six years to revitalise garment manufacturing.’’
They are close to running the robotics around the clock with a full roster carried during the day and a night shift to be monitored by one staff member.
Acrux garments are made at the same factory as Kauri Clothing, set up by Symon senior in 1990 and sold via his retail business Wild South.
Mr Symon said his father had mainly run a ‘‘cut and sew’’ manufacturing operation of heavy drill cotton products for the country wear market and some wool production.
In 1995 the business model was shifted to retail when he opened Wild South which at one stage had 18 stores.
Much of the clothing range was made offshore and as it became more cost driven they made the decision to return to their true passion of garment manufacturing which they had maintained at a small level locally.
Mr Symon said the evolution of knitting robotics made this viable.
‘‘These machines started becoming a pretty prevalent way of how the Chinese knitting companies were making products because they are highly scalable and there is a lot less margin for error because it’s all machinery. As the robotic technology developed, which has been reasonably recent, they have been able to consistently produce product and the flexibility with what you can do with designs reached a point where it became commercial for us to use them.’’
The machines are made in China and remove the former cutting and sewing process - reducing 20% waste from fabric offcuts to virtually nothing - by knitting the entire garment.
On the rare occasion when there is a fault, a machine can unpick a garment back into a spool so it can be used again.
Mr Symon said they were equally passionate about making New Zealand clothes with wool and wanted to do their small part to turnaround its fortunes.
‘‘Wool has been undervalued for a long time and hopefully we are showing people there is a path forward for wool to be used in garments.’’
Their mid micron work wool range is made from yarn of 28 to 32 microns - supplied by Wools of New Zealand - to stand up to heavy use on farms, rural settings, building sites and fishing boats.
A lightweight garment is also made to extend their wear in the shoulder months, outside of winter, and for warmer regions.
Mr Symon said the jerseys were smooth to the skin as the itch factor was removed during a yarn spinning process developed by Acrux. This is carried out in China - the only part of the wool to garment cycle performed outside of New Zealand.
Garments link stitched in one piece by the machines without seams also removed rubbing for less wear and a more durable product. All of wool’s warmth, odour resistant, fire retardant, renewable and biodegradable and comfortable qualities outperformed cheap synthetic alternatives, he said.
Mr Symon said the large order of hard wearing garments for Sealord were going through the ‘‘wringer’’ on the boats and the feedback had been positive.
He said the next stage was to increase machine numbers to produce garments more efficiently and economically as sales opportunities were turned into orders.
Acrux’s future strategy is to become a contract manufacturer for offshore brands after growing the garment brand in Australasia.
