'Mishinformation' - and the return of the bed kings
'Mishinformation' - and the return of the bed kings
‘We are all guns blazing, ready to rip, sh** and bust'
First Dunedin, but the next step is the lucrative American market for a pair of entrepreneurial former Scarfies.
You may remember The Flatpack Co founders, Angus Syme and Cam Leigh. I last featured them here.
The dynamic duo have just made a whirlwind trip around the country’s campuses visiting first-year students.
That market, who were set to go flatting next year, was the company’s bread and butter. The Flatpack Co specialised in boxed mattresses and frames and a guarantee of delivery on the first day a student moved into their new flat.
Like all good ideas, seems pretty simple.
And it’s worked, with the pair selling and delivering some 3000 beds over the last couple of years. In February, I reported that The Flatpack Co was set to turn over its first million dollars and “we blew it out of the water . . . we’ve had a fantastic year,” Syme said.
That success meant the pair were now looking to expand to the United States, home to the likes of Amazon.
Syme said their business model was about getting in front of students the entire year, and getting them to pre-order their bed before they finish the year, “so they can go away for summer and not worry about it”.
That meant by the time other companies went to market their products to returning students, they were already committed to The FlatPack Co.
It was in their first year at the University of Otago, when the pair came up with the idea to supply beds to fellow students – buying 30 secondhand beds from those graduating students and reselling them to their mates.
“There is a culture, in Dunedin especially, to buy a bed from us.”
Of the more than 4000 first-year students at Otago, the company sold beds to 550 last year while this year “we are on track to do 800-900”.
The success of that Dunedin-born idea was a key part of their American focus, as the New Zealand student city was their strongest market.
The key to Dunedin was that most of the students moved there from somewhere else, and there was a high concentration of students in the city
To replicate that in the United States, the pair researched similar ‘college towns’, contacting students over social media about their university, which were often three times the size of New Zealand universities.
Many of those were in the midwestern United States, with the pair also looking for college towns made up of mainly houses as opposed to apartment complexes with already furnished accommodation.
Syme and Leigh would visit mattress wholesalers in the United States next month, later heading to some of those colleges to employ teams of students.
And if all goes well, the pair would return to the United States in January “on a one-way ticket”.
“We are all guns blazing, ready to rip, sh** and bust.”
The pair would start in Kansas, and then concentrate on college towns in other states including Indiana, Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Nebraska, Alabama and Arizona.
“The plan is we will be in 25 universities in five years,” Syme said.
“The goal is to immerse ourselves in the college.”
New Zealand remained an important market with the pair looking at employing a “hot shot grad” to become the manager.
If that sounds like you, give em a buzz. And good luck to them.
I was hoping to run some last mayoral profiles in The Mish, but I didn’t get a response from David Milne nor Cr Lee Vandervis.
On Tuesday I sent Cr Vandervis a reminder.
Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
8:37 AM
Hi Lee,
I take it that is a 'no' from you?
Cheers,
Lee Vandervis <lee@*********.co.nz>
9:19 AM
Feel free to print this Hamish as my contribution to taking part in your Mayoral profile.
Your history Hamish of knowingly lying publicly in print, defamation and mishinformation on Stuff makes you an unacceptable as a ‘reporter’.
Cr. Lee Vandervis
Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
9:25 AM
Will do! Good luck with your campaign!!
Lee Vandervis <lee@**********.co.nz>
9:54 AM
Feel free also to remove the ‘an’ typo.
Reader: I did not feel free to remove the ‘an’ typo. And top marks for the ‘mishinformation’ line. I hear it is a Sean Connery/007 voice.
If you want to read about my 2022 interactions with Cr Vandervis, you can read about it here.
ICYMI here is a piece from a colleague on the husband and wife team standing for local body elections. Worth a read.
I’m pleased to report that after years of counter-protesting anti-abortion campaigners, Sam Sharpe is getting closer to putting away his ‘dicks’ sign.
Since 2011 Sharpe has been a familiar sight outside Dunedin Hospital, holding his infamous sign which includes a phallic arrow pointing in the direction of protesters.
Those protesters gather on Friday morning, which coincides with the hospital’s abortion clinic.
In March this year, the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill became law after passing its third reading.
However, moves to create safe areas of up to 150 metres around abortion facilities were yet to start, with the first round of safe area applications closing on August 15.
Te Whatu Ora Southern medicine, women’s and children’s general manager, Craig Ashton, confirmed that an application had been submitted for an abortion safe zone.
As part of the information gathering stage of that application, a site visit by health officials would be held “within the next month”.
“The intention of the visit is primarily to get a better understanding of provider’s premises, surrounding areas, and the safe area being sought.”
“These site visits will also provide valuable insight into each provider’s location to better inform the recommendations put to the advisory panel.”
Don’t expect anything too quickly, with the process expected to take up to six months.
Sharpe was delighted about the news, and still plans to continue with his counter protest.
Tweet of the Week has to go this gem from John Campbell
But the replies. Oh, the replies.
I’m less keen on the antics of some Dunedin drivers. There seems to be a reluctance to allow other motorists to merge, while the use of indicators appears optional.
On the subject of indicators, the Dunedin City Council appears to be rolling out more roundabouts across the city. You might recall a story I did on the peanut roundabout (and associated costs), which appears to be successful in reducing the crash rate.
This is the next one: a trial roundabout proposed for the Mailer/Lawrence Street intersection in Mornington.
If you don’t know how to indicate when using a roundabout. Learn more here.
And if you want an interesting watch, I suggest this documentary from Janic K Gorman: Trip Advisor: Drugs in Dunedin.
Anyway, have a great week!
I like the array of candidates this election.