Opening doors around the world

For a small country, New Zealand has a reputation on the world’s stage of punching above our weight. From ground-breaking physicist Ernest Rutherford and renowned mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist Sir Edmund Hilary to acclaimed opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and award-winning cinematographer Sir Peter Jackson, Kiwis are known for setting the standard.

The same applies in the world of business where New Zealand-made is synonymous with quality and names such as Fisher & Paykel, Cavalier and Fonterra sit side-by-side with the world’s best. That list can, now, also include door hardware manufacturer, Halliday + Baillie, whose New Zealand-designed and made products are finding their way into some of the biggest names in the commercial and hospitality industries.

“Halliday + Baillie has been designing, manufacturing and supplying a range of hardware products for the better part of 25 years,” says Director Tiffiny Hodgson. “In that time we’ve become synonymous with residential design.

“While we’re not really known, especially in New Zealand, for hardware specifically for commercial projects, our products have started to be specified in more and more high-end commercial and hospitality projects globally, most notably Raffles Hotel, Singapore, where our flush pulls and sliding privacy sets—in polished chrome and unlacquered polished brass—have been used.”

The commercial market, says Tiffiny, has significantly different needs when it comes to specifying products—mostly to do with being a high-traffic environment—compared to the residential market.

“However, with our focus on the quality of manufacture of all our components, our products are recognised as being high quality and durable. ‘On time and on budget’ is a key phrase within the commercial sector; people want to know they’re dealing with a proven product that will work well for their requirements and, because we have built a reputation within the residential sector, commercial specifiers know they can trust our products to deliver.

“The commercial market, globally, has been hammered due to COVID and the level of growth is different to what we had originally forecast. However, projects already in the ground have continued forward and with New Zealand seen as having its doors open, especially for manufacture, we are considered one of the safest options in the world right now.

“That said, while there is work there, it’s a bit different to what it was pre-COVID. As such, businesses need to be flexible in their mindset and their approach, which is where we see our advantage lying. At any given time we’ll have 10–20,000 components running through manufacture, plus a large finished stock holding. We also have great relationships with our fabricators and can ramp up production as needed, when it’s warranted.

“Halliday + Baillie has never missed a deadline for a large project before, which comes down to good process/stock management protocols.”

Tiffiny says the company is slowly getting into the commercial market in New Zealand, having supplied product for Air New Zealand lounges around the country and for The International; a $250m apartment project in Auckland.

“The International project was conceived as a premium lifestyle development with luxury apartments, pool and spa, theatre and fine dining restaurant, built around the historic Grand Hotel. The apartments feature a range of Halliday + Baillie products including sliding privacy sets, extrusion handles and over 700 custom-coloured D Pulls.

“At this end of the market, products are either commodity or bespoke and we're really getting traction at the more bespoke end with our HB 690 sets for sliding privacy doors, especially overseas, where New Zealand is recognised as being a bit ahead of the game in terms of sliding door hardware.

“Our privacy sets and flush pulls, in general, are great for maximising useable space, particularly in hotel rooms and have proven popular because of this with architectural firms that specialise in this area of the market. As well as their functionality, we manufacture them in 13 colours, for even greater suitability. We can also custom make colours for larger projects.

“All of our products are available in multiple finishes, which means they can be mixed and matched for a cohesive look across an entire project, something that is very attractive to the commercial market. In this market you need to be the player with the biggest range and there are very few with as wide a range of sliding options as we have.

“While we have rationalised our offering a little, in response to COVID, we always have a range of products in R&D and can usually get a product to market within six months—currently, we have seven new products in development.”

Being able to bring a concept to completion that quickly is an invaluable commodity in an environment where trends evolve rapidly and everyone is looking to differentiate themselves from the crowd—but so too are old-fashioned principles.

“At our heart, we’re a face-to-face company, that’s where we believe we excel at building relationships, however, we’re also realistic that in this current climate to rely solely on that would result in stagnation. To that end, we have embraced technology as a means of raising our profile internationally and are in the process of launching on Revit platforms in the US, with European-based options to follow. As an industry, we haven’t really embraced BIM here in New Zealand as much as overseas yet but it’s absolutely revolutionising the industry.

“We’re only recently delving into the commercial sphere but already we’re excited by what we are achieving and the projects we’ve become associated with. Halliday + Baillie products are in houses all over the world but you wouldn’t know where, whereas, with commercial projects, you can literally put a pin in it and say: that’s ours.”

Learn more about the comprehensive array of door hardware available through Halliday + Baillie.