Its clients have included the government, Air New Zealand and the All Blacks, while Lady Gaga, Willie Nelson and Tāme Iti are among its high-profile fans.
But one of New Zealand’s oldest manufacturing companies is “doing it so tough” that the chief executive had a stroke and now the family business is asking fellow Kiwis for help to stay afloat.
Hills Hats, an internationally renowned milliner since 1875, should be planning a big party for its 150th anniversary this year, but instead, the family business has launched a Pledge Me campaign in a desperate attempt they’re calling “the last roll of the dice”.
The fundraiser is also to raise awareness of the severe challenges facing Kiwi businesses, particularly in the capital.
The company is “clinging on when it seems like Wellington is in freefall”, chief executive Simon Smuts-Kennedy told Stuff.
Stuff
Faces of the Day
The company is “clinging on when it seems like Wellington is in freefall”, chief executive Simon Smuts-Kennedy told Stuff.
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TPU chairperson Ruth Richardson said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had condemned the previous government’s ‘sugar-rush economics’, but that this government had “reached for the same lolly jar”.
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In an Instagram video that has since been deleted, the 41-year-old addressed messages questioning whether she was ill or using weight-loss medication.
Face of the Day
Haeata Community Campus, the site of last week’s school lunch debacle, was among those questioned by the Office of the Auditor-General over funding an $18,500 trip to Queenstown for six staff members.
Face of the Day
The government estimates its new system will save about $13.3b over the next 30 years and increase GDP by 0.56 per cent a year by 2050.
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