Business threads combine

NECESSITY is the mother of invention – a proverb that Kassie and Andrew Blaszak could have written.

The Blaszaks own and run Ballarat’s last remaining knitting factory, Interknit.

When then 24-year-old Mr Blaszak had the opportunity to buy the business, founded in 1939 in Clunes as the Interknit Hosiery Company, his parents put the family home up as collateral for a loan.

The driver of Mr Blaszak’s commitment and determination was the fear that his parents might lose their house.

He dreaded the thought of having to tell his parents – ‘Sorry mum and dad I lost your house and you need to move into a caravan.’

Hard hit by the Global Financial Crisis three years after taking over the business, the Blaszaks downsized their staff.

In order to keep the business going they became jacks of all trades.

Mrs Blaszak said it was very scary at the time.

“We had to learn more, we had to think of new things, we had to diversity,” she said.

Mrs Blaszak, then 22-years old, said, “The one thing positive we had going for us was our youth and determination.”

She said they quickly realised the only way to keep going was to learn or teach themselves each step of the process – from knitting the yarn into fabric to packing the finished garment.

Over the years, they honed their skills, entered new markets, increased their turnover and cemented their reputation.

Mrs Blaszak said they used to make and sell acrylic jumpers.

“When the Chinese entered the market and started producing them, it almost shut down the whole sector for us, now we still make them but not in the volume we used to,” she said.

As a consequence, the Blaszaks decided to focus on quality garment manufacturing as the Chinese garments were vastly inferior to Interknits.

Because the majority of knitting factories no longer in business were commission knitters, Interknit entered the sector successfully growing and earning a name for quality locally made knitwear, school uniforms and rugby tops.

Mrs Blaszak said having a bricks and mortar shop at the front of the factory plus click and buy on their website covers all the retail bases, and provides cash flow as wholesale accounts are still a massive part of Interknit’s business.

A qualified accountant in what seems like a past life, Mr Blaszak knows how to perform every process involved in making Interknit garments.

He is a production manager organising the work flow, knitting machine operator and maintenance engineer when necessary, sales rep and is currently learning how to write computer programs for the knitting machines.

Mrs Blaszak is also a wearer of many hats.

She is self-taught designer and pattern maker, handles the photography, marketing and creation of the knitwear ranges and catalogues.

When a local babies blanket manufacturer planned on taking production off-shore, the Blaszak’s stepped in buying the business and rebranding under their own label – Branberry.

“I have no experience in anything here, I was in hospitality,” said Mrs Blaszak.

While they may have been inexperienced in the knitwear industry, they still come up with ideas that will take them into the future.

They see their niche product of quality merino wool Australian made knitwear as a unique way of combatting the Chinese push into the market.

Mrs Blaszak said their Gen X and Gen Y customers want to buy Australian made garments.

“They are concerned about carbon footprint and support a local family owned and run business,” she said.

Currently with optimum staffing levels and eight years’ experience under their belt, Mrs Blaszak said “When something pops up we [now] just say we can do it.”

Even with their can-do attitude it took the Blaszaks longer than expected to pay off the loan but the Mr Blaszak’s parent’s home was finally mortgage free.