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Cheryl Eldridge and her late husband are proven entrepreneurs. 30 years ago they realised their Wairarapa sheep station was marginal at best, and bought a flock of grey sheep, now registered as a NZ wool breed in their own right, ‘Stansborough Greys’. Combined with the alpacas they also run, the wool from these sheep makes a unique fibre.

But they didn’t stop there. The Eldridges built a business that is vertically integrated from farm to design to factory in Petone – using looms that came out to New Zealand in the 1900s – to distribution.

Called Stansborough, after the farm, the label is now recognised worldwide. But like all businesses, the shock of going into lockdown has caused stresses. For episode 21 of Business Connect, we spoke to Cheryl Eldridge to see how Stansborough is faring.

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Episode 20 of Business Connect looks at D-Fluff. Most people would have seen one of their bright red vehicles parked somewhere over the past nine years, installing or removing insulation from Wellington to the Waiarapa, Wanganui, Fielding, Palmerston North and the Kapiti Coast.

All that came to a halt when the lockdown was announced. With employees to consider, the first thing owner David Downer did was apply for the wage subsidy. And apply. And apply. When we spoke to him, he was awaiting the outcome of his third try.

D-Fluff received the correct wage subsidy a day after this interview was recorded – 17 days after New Zealand first went into lockdown and around a month after the payment was introduced, but this interview tells of the confusion and stress many employers faced in receiving it.

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Prior to being required to close down, The Chocolate Story in Petone was doing so well from in-store sales that it didn’t need a website and so has no capacity for online ordering.

When it shut its doors with just a few days’ notice, owner Brett Nicholls was forced to leave thousands of dollars worth of perishable chocolates sitting on the shelves with no way to sell it. In episode 19 of Business Connect, we ask whether this unique and popular business will be able to survive to service the region’s chocolate lovers.

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No movement of non-essential goods was allowed during Level 4, which made it hard for firms like Hire Me Movers, whose fleet of vans are usually on the road all day shifting everything from entire households to single packages, and which is the focus of episode 18 of Business Connect.

Even under Level 3, most of their work will remain pretty much impossible, and owner Lisa Cameron says though they will open from 1 May, the business is still lacking formal information other than social distancing and sanitizing, and keeping contact tracing details.

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