Showcasing Kiwi furniture
Mount Cook resident Todd Hayvice has opened YOYO Furniture in Thorndon Quay, showcasing furniture designed exclusively by New Zealanders.
“I saw a gap in the market for this New Zealand designed product,” Hayvice says.
Furniture retail is deeply engrained in his family.
His grandfather Maurie Kleist ran the furniture store, Woodcraft, on Adelaide Road for three decades, and his father Michael Hayvice set up the Italian furniture store, Theme, on the corner of Victoria and Bond Street. Both shops closed after the 1987 sharemarket crash.
Despite many recent closures of Wellington furniture stores, Todd felt the time was right to open a business.
“I feel quite comfortable starting up right now because our product is so different to what is already out there.”
He says New Zealand furniture design can compete against the European heavyweights.
“The designs are just as good, the product is just as good quality. The consumer can have the choice - they can choose the fabrics, the colours, the timbers. They can basically build it from scratch.”
Hayvice believes New Zealand designed furniture is becoming more popular as Kiwis get over their cultural cringe.
“I think we have matured. The New Zealand music industry matured, the fashion industry has gone haywire and I see the same with furniture design.”
- Shawn McAvinue










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