It is with some amazement and certainly pride to look back to Kiwinets very humble beginnings to where we are today after being in business for 30 years!
Kiwinet emerged from the rural farmlands of the Stanford Valley in 1994. I bought the fledgling company in 1998 and started off with 3 rolls of netting, a few pairs of scissors, a simple pattern and a seamstress who worked 45 km away from our farm. Today we are a continually growing and evolving, thriving team – a family.
The success of Kiwinet rests on two pillars –
our creative, committed, loyal Staff who continually strive for excellence
our valued Clients who entrust us to create their dreams and visions
When we reflect on our incredible Kiwinet journey, we are very grateful to have met amazing people and had the opportunity to travel to wild and wonderful spaces in many countries to enhance and create beautiful safe sleep sanctuaries. It has also afforded us an unexpected opportunity to develop and nurture our creative side which was quite contrary to the degree I trained for in Nutrition – thinking I’d forge my in preventative health care, which by life’s turn of events took a parallel path.
Having taken the plunge with Kiwinet, there was excitement and determination to make this new adventure work. I started with employing our farm workers wives, initially rolling out the pattern and netting on our lounge floor, then moved into a converted cowshed and sent the cut netting weekly to our seamstress with the local gentleman all the way to Elim. This lasted for a couple of years until it became necessary to employ a local seamstress and we eventually moved the workshop into the village of Stanford.
Within the first couple of years we explored the world of Decorex, Rooms on View, Indaba and met and made our mark in the Hospitality Industry – ranging from Southern to West Africa. A four-year stint in White River in Mpumalanga was an exciting period of growth and placed me on the doorstep of the Lodge Industry where I met wonderful and valued clients who we still do business with today.
We also attracted the interest of international clients developing products of their own and forged working relationships with them. As the years progressed, so did our designs, fabric offerings, services – including installations as we found ourselves as pioneers in an exciting, creative, unique space to provide our clients with bespoke, innovative and groundbreaking designs and styles to enhance the romantic Safari Sleep experience.
Having moved our workshop around Stanford for a couple of years it became clear we needed to settle. This we did in 2015 in our custom designed premises – still in Stanford with our committed and dedicated Kiwinet Team.
The last few years have really tested our resilience and staying power – with both 2020 lockdown and ongoing power supply challenges. We have “hung in” and navigated our way through this period with the Hospitality industry and have embraced our green instincts by tapping into the sun with our rooftop Solar system ensuring we can meet some tight deadlines.
How fortunate we have been to inadvertently be at the forefront and thus pioneering the creation of mosquito nets to fit any and all sleeping spaces.
If there is one golden thread that has woven through Kiwinet during the last 3 decades, it is that we continue to be a growing, learning, evolving and thriving organisation. There is still excitement and determination to embrace our creativity, experience and skills to offer our very best into the future.
Where to from here?
Widening and expanding our borders and offerings
and
Continuing our pioneering journey in Africa and beyond
If you can dream it, Kiwinet can create it.
We proudly EMPLOY / SOURCE / PRODUCE locally