Orders for face masks are flooding in at Annah Strettonβs Clothing Company in Morrinsville.
The Waikato business says it is making as many as 30,000 face masks a day and demand is expected to increase after Auckland went back into lockdown Level 3 and the rest of the country was raised to Alert Level 2 at noon on Wednesday. A team of 10 full-time staff are sewing, folding and packaging thousands of face masks each day, doing what they can to fill orders.
The turnaround can take between 10 and 20 days.
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We sold 15,000 masks that day, now our orders have almost doubled, Stretton said.
βNobody can walk away with a mask [on Wednesday], they have to pre-order.
βItβs not stopping at the moment, we are still having days that are bigger than yesterday.
βOur biggest day ever in Level Four was then beaten by ten times last Thursday.β
Manufacturers across New Zealand are reporting fresh demand, with manyΒ businesses temporarily closing orders.
Strettonβs masks are selling in packs of three for $20 and are being sent customers in New Zealand and Australia. The material masks are reusable and washable.
βThere will be certain spaces where we canβt have physical distance, like on public transport or in the medical space so then a mask becomes a good alternative.β
Stretton, who has been working 18-hour days to keep up with demand said: βItβs like the bell curve, it just keeps going up and down, but we keep going straight up.
βWeβve had orders right from lockdown until now. Weβre a fashion house. We had robust orders right through. Weβve never really stopped.
βMost of my evenings I figure out a plan and in the day I work with the packing team because there are so many orders to pack.β
The spike in demand comes after the business was βflatliningβ prior to lockdown.
βThe clothing industry has been soft for a while because we compete on a global scale β¦ itβs been a break-even battle for the last three or four years.
βMasks wonβt be here forever, not at the level theyβre at now, so itβs about making the most out of an opportunity.β
Stretton changed to making masks before lockdown when aΒ charity asked for 6000 face masksΒ in fabric. She saw the opportunity to generate revenue for her business and since then, business has really taken off.
14th August 2020