The company was started by father and son, Don and Tim Symon, accompanied by a group of investors last year to accelerate the growth of business at the place of Phillipstown.
So far, 14 entire knitting machines, each powered by six to eight cars, are programmed to the computer to delete a piece of clothing every 50 minutes to 1.5 hours.
About 500 to 700 clothes are being done per week, with plans to climb this in a 24 -hour shift operation to double production as sales increase.
Acrux produces working clothes in the middle of the microns on a hood line, zipper and crew trimester, German -projected technology also producing thin and merino fiber thermal meshes.
A large order of 800 hooded shirts was provided to the Sealorard fishing giant and the line is being stocked to the Papanui Miter 10 branch with a supplier contract that has just signed with ITM.
Robotics launching a single sewing clothes allowed the company to produce them at a competitive price.
Chief executive Tim Symon said the main knitting of clothing was completed without zipper manual work, some stage accessories and steaming stages and logos involving driver.
“The machine works all this and it’s almost like a 3D printer.
“It is a manufacturing process that removes the component of hand -to -cost structure.
“This is why it became feasible to bring the manufacture back here, because the problem with local manufacturing has always been the cost of the hand.
“You have people abroad in southeastern Asia who are doing almost nothing to make clothes and here, for all the right reasons, we pay a worthy salary.”
Symon said fewer drowners were needed, but the work was being created for better -paid programmers and technicians with “future focused” skills to assemble and adjust complicated machines.
“There have been a lot of local manufacturing business in recent years, but even in the 1980s, Lane Walker Rudkin was a large company that employed many people doing a lot of clothes, but they closed more or less overnight.
“There has always been a little of the manufacturing industry here, but it became increasingly difficult.
“These machines were in our mind for five or six years to revitalize the manufacture of clothes.”
The company was close to managing robotics all the time with a full list transported during the day and a night shift monitored by a team member.
Acrux’s clothes are made in the same factory as Kauri’s clothes, created by Symon Sen in 1990 and sold through his Wild South retail business.
Symon said his father mainly manages a “cut and sew” manufacturing operation of heavy cotton products for the country’s clothing market and some wool production.
In 1995, the business model was transferred to retail when he opened South Selvagem, which at an internship had 18 stores.
Much of the range of clothes was made abroad and, as it became more conducted by costs, they made the decision to return to their true passion for the manufacture of clothes, which they kept at a small level locally.
Symon said the evolution of knitting robotics has made it viable.
They had developed good partnerships with knitting companies in China and observed how they were always more efficient.
“These machines began to become a very prevalent way of how Chinese knitting companies were producing products because they are highly scalable and there is much less margin of error, because that’s all that is machines.
“As robotic technology has developed, which has been reasonably recent, they were able to consistently produce the product and flexibility with what you can do with designs have reached a point where it became commercial to use them.”
Machines are manufactured in China and remove the old cutting and sewing process – reducing 20% of fabric cuts to virtually nothing – knitting all clothes.
At the rare occasion when there is a failure, a machine can unzip a spool back outfit so that it can be worn again.
Symon said the company was equally in love with making New Zealand clothes with wool and wanted to make its little part to recover its fortunes.
“Wool has been undervalued for a long time and I hope we are showing people that there is a way to follow for wool to be worn in clothes.”
The medium-microns wool range is made of 28 to 32 microns-forested wires for wool from New Zealand-Para resist heavy use on farms, rural environments, construction flowerbeds and fishing boats.
A lightweight outfit is also made to extend your wear in the shoulder months, outside winter and to warmer regions.
Symon said the shirts were soft on the skin, as the itching factor was removed during a wire turning process developed by Acrux.
This is performed in China-A only part of the wool cycle the cloth performed outside New Zealand.
Clothing clothes sewed in a piece by sewing machines also removed friction for less wear and tear and a more durable product. All the heat of wool, odor resistant, fire retarder, renewable and biodegradable and comfortable qualities exceeded cheap synthetic alternatives, he said.
Symon said the great order of hard -use clothing for Sealard was going through “Wringer” in the boats and feedback was positive.
He said the next stage was to increase the number of machines to produce clothes more efficiently and economically as sales opportunities were turned into orders.
ACRUX’s future strategy is to become an offshore brands hired after increasing the clothing brand in Austlasia.
tim.cronshaw@alliedpress.co.nz
