Former customer buys firm

NEW ZEALAND: A former client of South Island-based clothing manufacturer Temuka Apparel has purchased the firm, saving at least six jobs in the process. Invercargill based merino clothing company Glowing Sky Clothing bought the company after it went into liquidation last month.

According to a report in a Fairfax newspaper, Glowing Sky will manufacture its own garments only and has retained six of the previous Temuka Apparel workforce. A further 15 jobs have been lost as a result of the company's collapse.

Glowing Sky owner Dil Belworthy told media that he believed it unwise to attempt to take on the general manufacture side of the business "in the current environment".

Belworthy, who with wife Cath started the business as a hobby in 1997, first began purchasing clothing made by Temuka Apparel when his other suppliers began getting their apparel made offshore.

Up until its demise Temuka Clothing supplied 95 per cent of its garments, he told the newspaper.

"We have always been great believers in the quality of the South Island workforce and the goods they produce, to the extent that one of my favourite lines has been that we are not New Zealand made, we are South Island made."