Making the first 500 Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Covers on our dining room table was stretching our patience. This wasn’t what we wanted to do. As these covers were slowly developing into an unexpected business, we decided our time was better spent on market development, not making the product.
After a little searching, we found a sewing company in Bathurst, an hour’s drive from Ilford, who said they’d like to make the product. We gave them the opportunity to make a few dozen, so they could work out an appropriate price per cover, and agreed to a price. We placed an order for 250 covers to be ready for our first Mudgee Field Days in July 1994.
A few days before the Mudgee Field Days, we arrived to pick up our covers.
The first thing we noticed when we entered their building was the impenetrable barrier put in place which barred us from entering their sewing area. Prior to this day, we’d been able to freely access the back area and speak to the sewers to discuss any problems they were having and work out ways to make the sewing easier for them.
We didn’t twig to the fact this barrier was for us!
When we approached the counter, with our cheque made out for the agreed price, the business owner appeared with bad news. She told us the covers were more difficult to make than originally thought.
Remember, they practiced on a few dozen, which we paid for, before setting their final price.
She was adding an extra fifty cents to the price per cover.
FIFTY CENTS!
That was an unexpected $125.00. We said we wouldn’t pay, couldn’t pay, and we have, in writing, an agreed price.
Her response?
We could see a solicitor, if we wished, but she wasn’t releasing the covers until we paid the extra $125.00.
My response?
Initially, it was to jump over the counter and do her great physical harm!
Fortunately for all of us, Victor was right behind me. His response was to take my arm, escort me out of the building and lock me in our car while he went back inside.
As an architect, Victor’s highly skilled in negotiating with builders, engineers, clients and tradesmen and women of every calibre. His skills are honed towards a win-win situation. Everyone must feel they’ve won something at the end of the deal.
When he returned to the car with our 250 covers, he told me he convinced her, albeit reluctantly, that the agreed price was a moral issue, but she still wouldn’t release the covers. After some verbal massaging on his part, and to ensure there was a win-win ending, he offered to pay her an extra 10 cents per cover. Which she accepted and released the hostages.
My innermost feelings hadn’t changed though. I’d spent my childhood playing on the streets of New York City with the neighbourhood boys. I learned a few things from them. That sometimes taking no prisoners is a good option!
The next stop?
A sewing company in Windsor, just outside of Sydney and about a 3 hours drive from Ilford. We found them in the Yellow Pages.
The factory owner was a great guy. Affable, experienced, eager to help us and wanting to do the work. He gave us an estimated price, but to make sure we wouldn’t experience the ‘Bathurst Hostage Syndrome’, we placed an order for 50 covers so they could work out an exact price and agreed to pay whatever price they set, to release those 50 covers. If the price was agreeable, we’d place an order for more.
He rang with a price a few cents more than his estimate. We liked their workmanship, so we placed an order for 500 covers.
By this time, The Guide Dogs were selling our cover over the telephone to raise funds for the training of guide dogs and pets as therapy dogs. They were a big client from the first day. So we really needed a company to make 500 covers at a time.
And what a relief to know we’d no longer be making ironing board covers!
A phone call from Windsor let us know the covers were ready to be picked up. With great excitement we got in the car and drove the 3 hours to get them.
A girl in the office directed us to a roller door. She said the covers were there.
As we approached the roller door, the floor manager, Mary, met us. First, she hastily thrust an invoice into Victor’s hand.
Then she started barking at us!
“Your covers are a pain in the bum to make!
You’re too fussy!
It is, after all, just an ironing board cover!!!!
No one here wants to make them!
Don’t come back!”
....are the words I seem to remember.
And with that, a man inside started hurling the covers, packed in plastic bags, out the roller door, bag by bag!
A ‘pugnacious dog’ had just bitten us on the hand!
Victor went into the office to talk to the factory owner. He was apologetic, but said his workers didn’t want to make them. Too fiddly, they told him. There was easier work to do.
Devastated, we drove back to Ilford hardly exchanging a word, each of us deep in thought. All we wanted was to find a company that would make our products with love and care.
A few days previously, I’d been reading Business Review Weekly magazine and remembered an article about the NSW Industrial Supplies Office. It helps businesses find companies to work with, it said.
That was a different perspective. We’re the government and we’re here to help.
In desperation, we rang early the next morning. We told them our criteria. First. We wanted to keep the manufacturing in the Central Tablelands, where we lived. Second. To be made with love and care by men and women who have a disability.
We thought that was a tall order.
But they rang back within 2 hours with the names of 3 companies they thought would suit us. Victor rang all three and we agreed to meet one company that day. And it’s been a perfect match ever since.
Wangarang Industries in Orange NSW has been sewing for us since 1995. Finding them was like Goldilocks finding just the right bed to sleep in.
And like Goldilocks, I let out a great sigh of relief. This time I knew I’d sewn my last Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover!
This accidental business is growing. There are now more than 75,000 covers in use around the world and increasing every day. And all our covers are made with love and care in rural Australia by men and women who have a disability.
To learn more about The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, visit our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com.
And there are more stories to come!
Divorcing couples fighting over their ironing board cover.
The bikies who storm our front gate to buy a cover.
A news article in the Sydney Morning Herald blows up our fax machine.
It’s always a pleasure to hear from you and I hope you’ll share your stories with me.
Take care,
CAROL
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