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The early 1960s was a period where NZ manufacturing was heavily protected, imports were tightly controlled and very few businesses had contact with China.
Peter McClune and Ron Howell were instrumental in forming McDonald Vadco Limited to capitalize on relationships within the NZ Trading fraternity and the China Import Export Corporations.
The McDonald Vadco slogan, “solely dealing with products from the People’s Republic of China” helped to establish sole agencies with the China trading Corporations. Trade in Yarn, fabrics and home textiles grew strongly through the 1970s with the first orders of finished Garments placed in 1978.
Travelling to China was key to develop trust and connections with deals and relationships formed over multi course banquets, those trips were long, often 4-6 weeks in duration. 1983 saw the start of delegations visits to New Zealand. Some weeks we had more than 10 delegations with most groups having observers, party officials, bankers, or other officials plus the 1 or 2 salespeople that did the business.
Pick up from the airport and sightseeing was mandatory, it was a 7 day a week operation for all staff with a fleet of large station wagons used to ferry trade group members and bags.
In 1984 the NZ government relaxed import controls and tariff reductions. Exchange rates were freely floated, government subsidies eliminated and restrictions on wages interest rates and prices were removed. Open trade was created with many industries changing overnight. We already had a special relationship in China and were able to take advantages of the huge changes in China’s capabilities to make products which now included hardgoods. Peter McClune was joined by his son Rob McClune and Graham Heaphy, volume expanded, as did a relationship with The Warehouse.
McDonald Vadco was the right company at the right time. By the 1990s the capabilities and variety of manufactures in China was quickly increasing and at the same time there was huge growth and demand from what was becoming a major customer, The Warehouse. T 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.
The 1990s saw the name change to MACVAD Ltd reflected what we had been colloquially known as for years. Private traders flourished in China, and by the turn of the millennium we were trading with hundreds of suppliers each year into the New Zealand market.
Trading with overseas retailers necessitated expansion offshore. Firstly, in Sydney to assist The Warehouse, then Toronto, London, Chicago, Johannesburg, and Düsseldorf to support key customers. Key to the growth has been the fantastic support team based in beautiful Hangzhou, some of whom have been with MACVAD for 17 years.
Today, MACVAD under the guidance of Struan Kingan, Hamish Miller and Andy McClune continues to assist customers worldwide to purchase from China based manufactures. We are proud to be based in New Zealand and to have helped thousands of China businesses to trade and flourish.