One of New Zealand's largest apparel company, Cactus Outdoor, has converted 100% of its efforts to manufacturing N95-protection level face masks.
"We've now converted our entire factory to face mask production and are actually standing up a new factory next week in order to ramp up production", said Ben Kepes, director of Cactus Outdoor.
Cactus Outdoor had already been developing and producing face masks six months ago for workers in trades like painting and carpentry, the shift to 100 percent production was to cater for such an unprecedented time in the economy and society.
Masks are an essential good, so despite the national lockdown, Cactus Outdoor will still be able to courier out their face masks for those in need.
The Covid-19 outbreak has made business owners rethink their dependence on overseas manufacturers. Therefore, with restrictions in place all over the world, our local manufacturers and suppliers are incredibly important.
Kepes hopes that New Zealand will learn from this and realise that we must progress to a more resilient local manufacturing economy.
