Holmsäter Ltd.

What are we

HOLMSÄTER is a manufacturer, wholesaler and direct mail order company making and selling high quality canvas and wood swings.

Started when and where

HOLMSÄTER was established 1993 in the village of Matiere in the heart of the King Country in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand.

By who

Jennifer Irene Etherington (New Zealand) and Thomas Holmsäter Mortimer (Sweden).

Why

We, Jenny and Thomas, met in Western Australia in 1986. We made our living for a few years by making and selling jewelry inspired by Same craft from northern Scandinavia. We traveled between Sweden and New Zealand and visited many places on the way. A few month before our daughter Solvej was born we settled in rural New Zealand in Jenny’s home village Matiere. In the rural areas you often have to create your own work. As a cabinetmaker and craft teacher Thomas had a dream of his own workshop. Thomas was inspired by a wooden lazy-boy chair he saw at a potters home in east Thailand, an old self-reclining deck chair in the home of a kakelugnsmakare in Sweden and a deck chair from India and from that he combined and developed designs on a selfreclining-foldaway-deckchair with a sunshade and a hanging version of the same. A workshop was set up in a former church. During a visit to friends we discovered that Solvej, 5-month-old at the time, loved swinging. Not being able to find a swing we liked on the market (most of them moulded plastic) we made her a canvas baby swing ourselves. This swing turned out to be attractive to other parents too and a decision was made to go in to production. From there it has grown and is still growing.

Business philosophies and principals

• High Quality
• Fair price
• Care for the environment
• Contribution to society