CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – James Dunlop Textiles is providing the primary support for Mokum Textiles in the U.S., a company that JDT acquired in the first quarter of this year. According to Ben Moir, president of JDT, business is “back on a growth phase after an 18-month flat market” that included damage to its facilities from a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that crippled parts of Christchurch in February.

“Our Southern logistics hub was destroyed and there was severe damage to our headquarters,” said Moir. “A temporary location off-site was set up within 48-hours of the quake and all payments and transactions were met on time and in full.

James Dunlop Textiles acquired the Mokum brand because Mokum has over thirty years of experience in textile design, development and distribution with a design studio in Sydney.

According to Moir, three quarters of the product-line from JDT is developed in-house with proprietary designs. Other brands distributed include Christian Fischbacher, Creation Baumann, Designs of the Time, FR-One, Voyage, Lorient, Villa Nova and Zinc. The entire Mokum product-line is developed in-house as well.

The JDT warehouse in Christchurch needed to be emptied and will need to be rebuilt and there was a temporary closing of its showroom, according to Moir. Operations continued but some staff members relocated to Auckland.

“The local recovery teams have been amazing, repairing the infrastructure rapidly,” said Moir. “The direct impact of the quake on us was minimal, but the ensuing two to three months were slower in sales for everyone.” 

As a testament, however, to emerging relatively unscathed, JDT is supporting the post-quake clean-up program by funding some of the less fortunate families who lost everything. The company has committed to this on-going support for several years as well.

JDT is focused primarily on “lifestyle” soft furnishings. Its contract team, which was established 10 years ago, has developed a stronger focus over the last two years to maintain relationships with key specifiers, architects and project designers and has received strong support from the hospitality market over recent months.

In March, Moir flew from New Zealand to Los Angeles to attend West Week with Anne Stevenson, vice president of U.S. and agency sales at Mokum. According to Stevenson, she and Ben received confirmation from the showrooms that the Mokum brand in the U.S. marketplace will continue to be given prime support.

“We were pleased to hear the accolades and positive responses to Mokum from interior designers whom we met there,” said Stevenson. “We hope this will translate into solid growth this year and next.”

Read the entire story in our summer issue here.