“It’s our people that make us great”. A true MACVADer has “fire in their belly” and a passion for product and delivery. Peter McClune, Co-Founder.
Sadly, we cannot mention everyone by name, but all our people have contributed to the success and growth of MACVAD and to our customers’ success.
In the 1950’s the New Zealand international trading environment was quite different to today’s unregulated, ‘free’, for all. Companies wishing to trade overseas make applications to the Reserve Bank for foreign funds to make payments.
To purchase a new car, you needed foreign exchange and to go on a waiting list. If one wished to travel overseas it was necessary to seek approval from the Reserve Bank to obtain traveller’s cheques from one of the trading banks prior to travelling.
Nearly all imports were tightly regulated to ensure protection for New Zealand industries and New Zealand was still tied to “Mother” Britain for most of our imports and exports.
In 1950 Peter McClune was 20 years old and working in Wellington for William McDonald & Co. (His earlier efforts to find satisfying employment as a teacher were not successful).
William McDonald & Co. was a family owned company, established by ‘Bill’ McDonald in the 1920’s. As a manufacturer’s agent they represented several of the UK’s leading textile companies, including WM Clark and Sons est. in 1776 in Northern Ireland.
Peter was employed to look after sales in the South Island. Peter would leave Wellington on the overnight ferry to Christchurch. Arriving early in the morning with suitcases full of samples he would walk around meeting with buyers all day, returning to Wellington on the evening ferry. Peter grew his Christchurch trips from 2 days to 3 days and then a week, with additional trips to Dunedin.
During the 1950’s William McDonald & Co. opened a second office in Auckland run by Peter Quiney, but it was not a success. Don McDonald (Bill McDonald’s son) subsequently came to Auckland, but did not fare much better. In fact, William McDonald & Co. made no profit from the Auckland office in the 1950’s, while Doug McDonald was running a profitable Wellington business.
In the late 1950’s the world was changing and the UK was no longer the only option for textiles. Japan, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia were all producing “new” textiles and opportunities in the Far East were opening up.
Other traders were also getting started in China. Ron Howell, an Auckland based trader, was establishing connections selling New Zealand wool with some success. China at that stage did not have too much in the way of foreign cash reserves and was looking to promote exports sales.
Ron Howell has a son called David. Take the first 3 letters of David’s name, and reverse them you have the start of the name of Ron’s Company VADco Traders Ltd.
In 1961 Peter was offered a transfer to the Auckland office with the brief to make a profit and develop the Far East. Peter, his wife Val and their four kids moved to Auckland. Two more children, including the baby of the family, Andy McClune (a current Director of MACVAD) would arrive later.
Peter’s first trip to the Far East was a three month trip in April 1962. In May 1962 while in Japan, Peter met a group of Australians’ including Reg Urquhart (of R D Urquart a household textile importer) and Mark Voyage (of A G Voyage) who had recently attended the Canton fair in China.
From this meeting a great friendship developed with Reg Urquhart. Peter subsequently received many names of contacts in China and correspondence was started directly with the China National Native Produce Import and Export Corporation, Shanghai Arts and Crafts Branch. This resulted in Peter importing tea towels. During 1962 a second office of the China National Native Produce Import and Export Corporation was opened, the Peking Arts and Crafts Branch.
In early 1963 Ron Howell held discussions in China where he was pressured to start reciprocal trade with China, so selling his wool and for the first time, purchasing products from China. This resulted in Vadco Traders securing a sole agency agreement from the China National Native Produce Import and Export Corporation.
William McDonald & Co. subsequently received letters to this effect, outlining the sole agency agreement, from both China National Native Produce Import and Export Corporation and Vadco Traders.
There was a potential problem with Ron’s new trading agreement. He did not know much about textiles and could see his aspirations to develop the Chinese opportunity failing. In an attempt to secure the business Ron approached the companies which had been trading Chinese textiles in NZ and offered them sub agencies to on-sell textiles on behalf of Vadco Traders, with a split commission arrangement. Most companies decided not to do anything and to wait for the agency to falter.
William McDonald & Co. however took a different view and looked at the potential of China and the agreement as an opportunity to have a point of difference from the many other textiles agencies. William McDonald & Co. started negotiations which lead to an agreement to sell on behalf of Vadco Traders and to split the commission, 3% for William McDonald and Co. and 2% for Vadco Traders.
William McDonald & Co. was corresponding directly with China and Vadco Traders were copied on all correspondence. The situation was now relatively stable with business growing, but from the Chinese point of view it looked messy. Further discussions took place between William McDonald & Co. and Vadco Traders and a new company McDonald Vadco Ltd was created, solely for the promotion and sale of goods from the People’s Republic of China.
Peter McClune was appointed General Manager. The business was ideally located in Auckland, where more and more of the textile businesses were locating their buying offices.
And so, the MACVAD journey begins….
Peter managed the sales and Ron managed the office. Ron Howell was a difficult man to work alongside. He was a strong Methodist with temperate views, an accountant and a socialist, during a period in history that made it difficult. However, Ron was good at this job and very well organized.
The filing system developed by Ron Howell for McDonald Vadco at the very beginning was so good, 30 years later it was used as the basis for Bounty, the newly developed in-house computer system. Bounty in turn has influenced the development of the new, “state of the art” system used by MACVAD today, called “Horizon”, in turn developed by Peter’s son Andy.
McDonald Vadco was based in Elliot Street, downtown Auckland. In the early years Peter was assisted by his right-hand man, Alan Moyes. Alan did not travel and if my memory is correctly, did not drink Lion Red (he was a DB man.) The team included Dom Keys, the bookkeeper, Bert Rhodes the office manager and a couple of smart salesmen in Warren Hodge and Ron Kay.
Entrepid Travel to the Far East – Banquets and Business
Peter started travelling regularly to China. With no diplomatic relations in NZ it was necessary to travel to Hong Kong to apply for a Visa. Today we can get a visa from New Zealand in 24 hours, but back then you flew from Auckland – Sydney – Darwin – Manila – Hong Kong (arriving totally buggered). Recovery in Hong Kong required at least a week while waiting for a Visa to China. Then, it was a full day trip to cross to the only entry point into China at Lowu and travel to Canton. Your passport was taken from you during your stay in China and only returned on your departure once the train had departed Canton for Lowu.
Travel permits were also required for travel between cities in China and many cities were off limits for foreigners. To fly from Canton (Guangzhou) to Shanghai was quite an effort. Canton – Changsha – Wuhan – Hangzhou – Shanghai was about 8 hours on a good day and 3 days on a bad run. Flights were infrequent and best avoided if possible. Train was the best method of transport, as it is today, although there were some seriously slow trips;
Serious eating was also required. It was not unusual to have three banquets in a day (for breakfast, lunch and dinner.) “Our Chinese hosts were always with us”. A host would always travel with Peter and take him to the next city to deliver him to his next host. Serious discussions always occurred with hosts. Invariably, the conversations were about the perennial problem of late delivery. They were never about problems with the price and rarely about quality problems.
Most of the time, it was only possible to have two meetings each day. The morning meeting would start at 9.00am with political speeches extolling the virtues of China and the Party. The speeches might end at 10.30am, followed by a brief discussion concerning textiles and NZ. At 11 am it would be off to lunch for a 10 – 12 course banquet, then back to the hotel for a short rest, before heading off to the next appointment in the afternoon at 2pm.
At 2pm there would be futher reinforcement of the virtues of the local systems, followed by a brief discussion on Silk fabric for NZ. At 4.30pm the meeting would finish, and Peter would be off for the evening meal. This would be another 10 – 12 course meals hosted by the manager of the afternoon appointment. The generosity of his Chinese hosts was undeniable.
These meals were hugely important as it was where the real business took place. Relationships and friendships were formed and problems were raised. Generally, at each meal there would be Peter, the boss of the corporation, the head of the department hosting the meeting, the day to day businessman, the interpreter, the Party boss, the driver, and somebody the boss would be trying to impress like the local customs man or banker (wheels within wheels).
McDonald Vadco had used the slogan “solely dealing with products from the People’s Republic of China” to great effect and had secured sole agencies for;
Each of these corporations had a head office in Beijing and branches in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Dalian, Guangzhou, Qingdao and a few other cities. It was a top down structure with all decisions concerning price and allocation being made in Beijing, with provincial and city structures below following head office directives to supply.
The early years were extremely difficult times and Peter’s ability to establish, manage and develop these initial relationships cannot be underestimated. Trading in China during the “Cultural Revolution” was not an easy task and one which very few traders in the world would have experienced.
In the late 1960’s, McDonald Vadco was doing a lot of business in Australia. An office had been opened in Sydney and Ron Kay was the 1st Sydney Manager. However, business was difficult and the office was closed 2 years later.
About 1968 the New Zealand market also started to change. Import licences on many categories of product had consolidated into the hands of a few companies. Now, selling product not only required good relations with suppliers, but also good relations with import licence holders. To secure the long-term future of McDonald Vadco, Peter started discussions with Wales and Mackinlay, with a view to bringing them on as shareholders. This resulted in new shareholding being a third each (William McDonald & Co. / Wales and Mackinlay / Vadco Traders). This arrangement stabilised the company and helped to secure sales and deliver ongoing growth.
Many other changes also started to occur with various people. In about 1972 Des MacDonald (different spelling from McDonald Vadco) joined the team. Des had a wonderful attitude when visiting China. He loved the people and his bubbly personality assisted in opening a lot of new doors. This was also the year the Peoples Republic of China and the New Zealand Government established formal diplomatic relations.
Around 1978 New Zealand was starting a period of change. Infant garments were exempt from tariff and import control. This enabled McDonald Vadco to establish a garment department. Graham Gummer was the initial manager given the opportunity to start garments and home textile products.
Ron Howell was excited by the change and opportunity, and Peter McClune gained a 20% shareholding in the Company.
Many changes also started to happen in China. Late in 1978 the decision to establish the Shenzhen special economic zone started a process of investment in China. Initially, this was very slow but over the next 10 years Hong Kong Chinese investment in factories and infrastructure started to slowly to return to China. This led to an explosion of opportunities which enabled McDonald Vadco to really grow.
In 1979 Rob McClune, Peter McClunes older son joined McDonald Vadco. At that time MACVAD was based on the corner of Union and Nelson Streets. “From memory we had 10 staff”, including Peter McClune, Des MacDonald, Graham Gummer, Rob McClune, Dawn Howe, Diane Finlay, Dom Keys, Garth Sawyer and Rod Hebden. “We were still only involved in selling fabrics and infant garments, and a few home textiles”.
In 1982 The Warehouse Ltd, New Zealand was established. This was a new concept, bringing affordable products to all New Zealanders. Previously, high cost of local and imported products (shoes and clothing in particular) meant that many families were unable to afford these basic necessities.
1983 was the start of a wave of trade delegations from China to New Zealand. The delegations were a mixture of government, provincial, municipal and company interests and arrived in New Zealand en-masse.
“Some weeks we had more than 10 delegations. Most groups tended to have only 1 or 2 members who worked, the rest were observers, party officials, bankers or officials needing buttering up by the leader of the delegation. These delegations were difficult to manage. Pick up from the airport and sightseeing was mandatory, as was entertainment. At this stage it was a 7 day a week operation for all staff. The company ford station wagons were the vehicle of choice (where 5 trade group members, plus driver and 5 bags could be accommodated)”.
In 1984 the NZ Government started the process of relaxing import controls and import tariff reduction. Exchange rates were floated, Government subsidies for agricultural products were eliminated and restrictions on wages, interest rates and prices were removed. Open trade was created with many industries changing overnight and many garment makers closing. In turn, garment importers were created. Light industrial products like furniture, cups & saucers, tents, bikes etc. could also be imported. McDonald Vadco was the right type of company, in the right place, at the right time.
With the experience and special relationship with China, we were able to take advantage of the huge changes in China’s capability to make products to the standard our market needed. We had buyers in New Zealand with no knowledge of China wanting to buy and the supply channel in place. The stars aligned. At a trade fair in Wellington, McDonald Vadco received a sizable quantity of trade licences to import goods from China enabling what would become, a highly profitable relationship with The Warehouse to begin.
The Warehouse grew and around 1990 became large enough to be a force in the discount market, sourcing products from China on a regular basis.
New Zealand was also seeing the start of the second great wave of Chinese migration to New Zealand (the first being the 1880 gold rush in Otago.)
One of the quietest and sweetest immigrants to arrive in New Zealand was Miss Theresa Ming Zhou, “Theresa”, who arrived at McDonald Vadco the day after arriving in New Zealand with a letter of introduction from one of our old friends in China, recommending Miss Zhou as a hard worker.
We were very lucky. Theresa is still with us today and yes, we can accurately report, she does work hard. Theresa has guided us through many situations, been our interpreter and friend and supported both our garment department, and more recently she has a management role withour QA and compliance teams.
Graeme Heaphy had joined McDonald Vadco in 1985 and a visit to China in 1993 with Neil Plummer (Plumb) of The Warehouse set off a change in the fortunes of both The Warehouse and McDonald Vadco. The trust and understanding between Graeme and Neil enabled a huge expansion of business.
Changes were also afoot at McDonald Vadco. In 1986 Doug McDonald was retiring from William McDonald and as such a hand shake agreement with Peter McClune led to an alteration in Peter’s shareholding. 1992 saw further consolidation of shareholding into the hands of working Directors with the buyout of Wales and Mackinlay’s shareholding, with the appointment of Rob McClune and Graeme Heaphy as Directors.
Through all the changes of shareholdings and the many changes on government tax policy McDonald Vadco had received great advice from Graham Brown. Graham was our company secretary for more than 20 years and knew the company inside and out. His advice and practical management assistance kept all Directors on the straight and narrow and Graham had a huge influence in focusing all of us on McDonald Vadco’s future.
During the 1990s the garment division continued to grow and flourish, initially under the guidance of Rob McClune, then from 1992, Scott Gibson, and from 1995, Greg Pool. Also joining the McDonald Vadco team in 1995 was Struan Kingan who together with Graeme Heaphy quickly expanded the Light Industrial division.
The capabilities and variety of manufactures in China was rapidly increasing and at the same time there was huge growth and demand from The Warehouse, who were becoming a major customer. Tee shirts, snuggle sacks, bicycles, baskets, power tools and the ubiquitous garden gnomes were just a handful of the products in demand and McDonald Vadco had the systems to not only find them, but make it easy to buy them.
Rob McClune and Graeme Heaphy continued to expand the product offering and supplier base, and this momentum continued with Struan Kingan, Greg Pool and Andy McClune (who joined during 1996), taking up a shareholding and driving sales in the Hardgoods, Garments and Home Textile divisions.
Andy the youngest son of Peter and Val McClune brought his systems and logistics experience and quickly learnt the home textiles side of the business. In his interview with Struan Kingan (dressed in a suit) and Graeme Heaphy (dressed in Trackie pants) Graeme had explained the role Andy was applying for and what working at McDonald Vadco involved. Struan was heard to say, “Is that all you have to do”. Later, a bit older and wiser and knowing more about Andy’s role, Struan later admitted to being very wrong about that comment.
At the end of the decade McDonald Vadco was occupying a two-storey office building in Spring Street and was experiencing growth in all areas, except for textile piece goods. A reduction in local manufacturing saw the sales of bulk fabric decline and after nearly 30 years selling fabric MacDonald Vadco closed the Textile division passing customers on to Domino Textiles in Christchurch.
In the year 2000 The Warehouse entered the Australian market through the purchase of a discount chain called Crazy Clint’s and Silly Solly’s. McDonald Vadco established relationships with the Australian buying team for the newly named “The Warehouse Australia” and provided good support from across the Tasman. Early 2001 saw Jason Tolley come on board to help Struan Kingan consolidate and grow the business in Australia.
2002: Neil Plummer joined the MACVAD Board. Neil had his first trip to China in 1990 with Graeme Heaphy when working at The Warehouse. Neil gave the company excellent common sense advice and commercial support. As well, Neil always had an opinion on sport. Neil stayed on the Board for 22 years.
Towards the end of 2002 it was becoming difficult to grow with The Warehouse Australia without being on the ground in Sydney.
2003: In February Jason Tolley moved to Sydney and McDonald Vadco opened an Australian office for the 2nd time in its history. This year also saw a move from our Auckland home in Spring Street to a larger space at the top end of the Newton gully, just around the corner from the famous Karangahape (K)Road. This was also the year a “keen young man” joined the team called Sharl Short, as an Account Manager. Also in late 2003 Hamish Miller and Melanie Ballard joined the team on the same day. Mel promptly flew off to a Trade Fair and Hamish went to work in China, working on factory inspections.
2004: The company change its name officially from McDonald Vadco to MACVAD. This was the abbreviated name used most frequently by suppliers and clients alike. The name change removed the confusion for our suppliers about what, and who, our company was. Often new suppliers thought we were representatives of the large American burger chain with the famous “golden arches” logo. We always responded by saying McDonald Vadco was much bigger than that company! While the name was shortened, the red band with the gold strip remained as part of the logo.
MACVAD began working with clients in both the Canadian and South African markets. In tandem with Australia and NZ, MACVAD was really beginning to spread its wings. MACVAD Australia moved offices from North Parramatta to Newington.
The following year a support office was established in Hangzhou, China. This has continued to grow over the years and is now 40 people strong, supporting our teams around the globe with admin services, QC and QA services, factory audits and sourcing capability. People in our China team partner and work as part of teams in our offices around the world to ensure we are highly efficient and effective in all aspects of sourcing and supply.
2005: We established our in-house design team. This team has provided MACVAD with a significant point of difference in all our markets. We have talented designers who understand the markets and trends, producing top quality packaging and design options for our clientele, at a fraction of the cost charged by an external design studio. The team has graphic designers in NZ, Australia, UK, USA, and Canada and support in China, providing 24/7 service.
2007: MACVAD Group acquired Tynan Textiles. The company name was changed to TYTEX and the focus was on sourcing and supplying commercial textiles. TYTEX continues to evolve and provides warehousing and contract logistics services to the Group as well as branching into product categories such as medical disposables that it distributes through its established health industry channels. Aaron Nye was our first manager and Benjamin Taylor came on board when Aaron moved to Hawkes Bay. A few years later TYTEX was sold to Spotlight Limited.
2008: MACVAD acquired TOPLINE Marketing, a national NZ merchandising company. TOPLINE Marketing complimented MACVAD’s core business, being able to assist in the in-store merchandising of its lines in store. TOPLINE Marketing had a strong presence in NZ supermarkets and a great portfolio of brands that it represented in those channels. After a successful few years, the business was sold to focus and fund growth in overseas markets.
2009: MACVAD NZ moved head office again to the current location in Birkenhead on Auckland’s North Shore. This year also saw purchase of ARREDO by the MACVAD Group, providing expertise in furniture to many of NZ and Australia’s large furniture retailers. ARREDO was managed by a friend of MACVAD, Gerry Watkinson who was a big player in the furniture market for many years. Our teams benefited from his extensive experience, positive input and endearing personality, until Gerry took up retirement.
As MACVAD’s business with ALDI Stores in Australia grew, we were introduced to ALDI buyers in the UK. For all of 2009 and half of 2010 Emma Dever serviced this growing account from the other side of the world in Australia. By August 2010 an office was needed in the UK and we found a great location on the northern edge of London, in Borehamwood.
The end of 2010 also signalled an office move for MACVAD Australia to Camperdown, just on the western fringe of the Sydney CBD. Lisa Wilson joined the team at this time, running and developing the garments team. Lisa now manages garment divisions in Australia, UK and the USA.
2011: We opened a South African office based in Johannesburg to support the burgeoning business relationships that were being driven by our colleague Guido Lorenzini in that region. Sharl Short (now a director) did the long trip many times back to his homeland to help support this team.
2012: MACVAD opens an overseas office for the 3rd year in a row and the 5th time in the last 9 years. This time in Toronto, thanks to a long term relationship with Mark Robinson a contractor who supported MACVAD in the early days and helped the business reach a level where a local presence was needed. Mark is still part of the team and the ongoing development of the Canadian office was taken over by Hamish Miller, based in the NZ office.
2013: MACVAD UK team moved to bigger offices as they were bursting at the sides. MACVAD USA opened to support growing opportunity in North America with Wendy Bennett joining the team.
2015: MACVAD China moved to stand alone offices in Hangzhou, the team had outgrown its current office. Neil and Janet McGillivray spent 4 years away from New Zealand living in China helping to develop his great team.
2016: MACVAD set up a Sustainability Committee. This was established to support and identify better long-term products, packaging and suppliers for the Group.
2017: MACVAD USA moved into their own office in Chicago.
MACVAD also opened a satellite office in Los Angeles, USA this year to support customers in that region.
2018: The Canadian office had outgrown itself and moved to bigger and better surroundings.
MACVAD LTD. is proud to be announced as the exclusive New Zealand Distributor for SKELL INC of BUG-A-SALT, thanks to Sharl Short who had established a relationship with the company.
2019: MACVAD opened a branch in Dusseldorf Germany to support new and existing customers in Europe.
MACVAD like many others had a very challenging year with factories closing in Jan/ Feb 2020. Goods were delayed with shipping disruption. Then all offices were in lock down with the UK, USA Canada, and Europe heavily affected and working from home.
Our team stood up to these challenges amazingly. The China team stepped up with more sourcing and inspections of factories. Communication between each country strengthened. The teams did extremely well considering how hard a year it was.
2022: MACVAD adapted and grew through the learnings of a worldwide pandemic. Communication changed and developed. After years of many trips per year to China, our teams in each country had not been to China since 2019 which for some organisations may have been a serious problem, but our wonderful team in China stepped up and covered all the areas we needed supported and it has been a great success story for the company.
BUG-A-SALT led by Struan Kingan, with Sam Sheehan managing now has a global presence with customers in Europe, Australia and South Africa. We have people on the ground in several European countries, servicing our retail customers.
Our well established teams are continuing to grow. Over the past 12 years MACVAD has truly become a global player. The Group has provided retail support for customers in NZ, Australia, England, Ireland, USA, South Africa, Canada, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Switzerland, France and more.
The MACVAD team is 140+ people strong and located in 9 countries, so we are literally working around the clock! Along the way MACVAD’s scope of business and services have grown and developed. MACVAD provides sourcing and supply expertise, large wholesale services and warranty and service lines in 5 countries. Our inhouse designers create innovative packaging and design solutions that directly impact and increase sales for our customers.
MACVAD Group is well placed to continue to grow in the global marketplace, a very different place to the one it started in 60+ years ago. While the world and marketplace have changed the underlying business practices with a focus on relationships, customer service and quality that MACVAD has always applied will continue to underpin the next 50 years.
There is one person who contributed greatly to the success of MACVAD, but was never ‘officially employed’. Val McClune, Peter’s wife of 50+ years.
Married on 5th July 1952, Val was the strength and determination behind Peter. Val and Peter had six children (all angels to be sure, but probably a bit of a handful from time to time). With Peter away for up to three months at a time in the early days, the care of their large family fell to Val.
Later when the trade group arrived en masse, Val was the driver of the second tour car and also head chef for Devonshire teas and later extended her skills to six and eight course Chinese meals, for up to 10 people. Quite remarkable!
For Peter, one his greatest joys while watching the growth and success of MACVAD was his good fortune and the pleasure of having Val by his side. “It would not have happened without Val”. As told by Rob McClune & Peter McClune
