Growing up I had always been a tinkerer.
I loved model building and painting and can remember from a very young age my fascination with unscrewing and disassembling toys, watches, radios, you name it! Basically anything I could get my hands on was ultimately pulled apart because of my interest in how things worked (unfortunately at this age re-assembly was never a strong point of mine!).
Over the years I spent countless hours in the shed with my late father Bruce Barnes, a successful entrepreneur, who I know continues to influence me today.
The Devon Outdoor Furniture Company
Along with his business partner, my father started the Devon Outdoor Furniture company in an old tin shed in Newmarket, Auckland in the 70's. With Bruce's design qualifications they set out to build the "best outdoor furniture money could buy."
'Style, comfort, colour and durability."
Unfortunately diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer, my late father Bruce Barnes eventually sold his share of the Devon Outdoor Furniture company. It was then that he embarked on one last project driven by his love of wine.
Winerax
He developed a modular wine rack system called Winrax, which assembled much like Lego, and with over 30 years of industrial design experience it was no wonder that Trade & Enterprise New Zealand took notice and kick started the company now known as ‘Winerax’ into gear, their generous grant contributing towards product toolmaking expenses. This company also still exists today.
After Bruce’s passing in 2002 my mother took charge of Winerax. Steadily kicking along for a few years sales increased and little Richard started to struggle keeping up with packaging enough wine racks into boxes for dispatch. The business had grown and it was destined for overseas export, unfortunately this was proving to be too big for mum so Winerax was sold on to a lovely local family business who had more experience in the export field.
I know my dad would have been just as fascinated and excited about the possibilities of 3D printing and I'm encouraged by his business success, attention to detail and quality, and I'm excited to deliver this service to many more likeminded entrepreneurs, manufacturers and creatives.
Get in touch today and let's see where we can take your big idea!
Richard
