Helping a fourth generation timber exporter escape the commodity bind and become a successful design led product developer. 

Legacy Timber is a fourth generation Whangarei family company well used to reinventing itself. Starting in 1905 as a building supplies company, it's been a builder, a pioneer of export timber mouldings, a supplier of complex beams for traditional Japanese housing, and most recently a manufacturer of clearwood edge glue laminate panels for high-end DIY shelving products here, in Australia and Japan. Challenge Realising the fragility of this market and its vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations, Legacy had begun developing its own designed products when it approached DNA. The Thinking Working with us quickly led to the realisation that beautiful, sustainable, raw material, a New Zealand story and a handful of products weren't enough to succeed in the international design market. The business needed to get out of the '~commodity bind' where price is always the issue. It had to become an ideas company, design led and offering unique product that can't be replicated. This product development had to be driven by potent consumer insights to support the development of ongoing brand relationships. DNA and Legacy worked together to develop new products, forge new channels to market, craft a powerful brand structure and evolve an integrated research, development and design capability to reinvent a new business that IS the brand Revolutionised Market Offering HOLD is the outcome - understanding the common human urge to collect '~stuff' (intrinsically valuable and sentimentally significant objects, images and artworks) and to display them as an expression of self. HOLD is a growing collection of innovative products that facilitate managing the important and valuable '~stuff' in our lives. More than that it is the beginning, middle and end of the latest reincarnation of the Provan family business. Translating Investment Into Business Results Test release through selected local retail outlets from late 2006 far exceeded expectations and the brand won a 2007 Best Design Award. Significant orders have come from top-end US chain and design stores following launch at two US trade shows. Hotel designers are now showing interest and the product is soon to feature on the Oprah Show and the HGTV Home Garden Show. Hold's mid 2007 launch in Paris also went well and negotiations are underway with top European and UK design stores. Promotion at the Tokyo 100% Design Trade Fair in late 2007 also generated very strong interest and distribution negotiations are underway. Product launch in Australia is currently being scoped. Watch this space'�

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