Star Products looks across Tasman

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 22

Star Products looks across Tasman

By

NEVIN TOPP

Star Products, Ltd, the Christchurch motor-cycle and equestrian helmet maker, is hoping that a third of this year’s turnover will be from exports to Australia, according to the manager, Mr R. L. Tapley. The firm is hoping that it can achieve export sales of more than $400,000 in the year to March 31, compared with $150,000 this year, and $60,000 in 1979. The firm would be doubling its efforts and volume in exports, particularly in motor-cycle helmets, to Australia this year, he said. The company expected to do well in the exporting of motor-cycle helmets across the Tasman because it was making a product that Australians liked — the price was right for a better class of product, the helmets met the highest safety standards required, and they were readily available because of regular shipments by air from New Zealand. There were supply problems from countries like Italy, France, the United States, and Britain, he said. Another reason for the prospects of more sales in Australia were that the motor-cycle helmets also looked fashionable.

“Sales are good this year. It looks as though they are going to be well ahead of last year.” On equestrian helmets, Mr Tapley said that sales in Australia were steady throughout the year because horse riding was not confined to a particular season. Star Products was one of three companies in the world that met equestrian standards with its helmets. The company met both New Zealand and Australian equestrian standards, he said. Last year about 8000 motor-cycle and equestrian helmets were exported out of a total proauction of more than 30,000 helmets. Although there are prospects of better export sales for motor-cycle helmets, the domestic market has not been as buoyant. The number of registrations for new motor-cycles totalled 1440 last month, compared with 2000 in May, 1982. This downturn had been consistent every month this year, Mr Tapley said. Mr Tapley said he had been told that Star Products was the largest maker of sport and leisure helmets in both Australia and New Zealand, and was the only company in the two countries to make helmets in fibreglass, polycarbonate, or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

ABS was a recent European development, and the product met the recently introduced “wipe test,” where helmets were wiped with a powerful mixture of solvents and left for 30 minutes and then impacted. Star Products is hoping to sell all four of its specialist motor-cycle helmets in Australia — the Turbo-Star, Motostar, Jetstar, and Novastar — although some carry different names in New Zealand because ol brand name difficulties. All the helmets are designed by Mr Tapley. Many of New Zealand’s top motor-cycle riders, notably Dennis Ireland, lain Pero, Brent Jones, and John Woodley, use Star Products helmets, particularly the 'Novastar. The major differences between the racing helmet and the street helmet were

that the competition variety had more padding around the sides of the neck and chin to prevent unnecessary movement and noise in high speed and the visor was tinted. The Novastar could also carry four “tear-off’ visors, made of cellulose acetate, over the main visor, which could be individually pulled off during a race, as each layer became dirty, he said. Star Products has its own laboratory for rigorously testing helmets for shock absorption, penetration, and retention, including tests after being refrigerated,

heated, or immersed in water. Except for a laboratory belonging to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Star Products’ laboratory was the only one of its kind in the South Island. It met the standards set by the Testing Laboratory Registration Council of New Zealand (TELARC) which had approved the laboratory after exhaustive checking of equipment and all procedures, plus periodical rechecking to ensure that all the apparatus was correctly calibrated and all tests con-

ducted properly. Five helmets in a batch of 200 were tested to destruction, a process which took a day to complete. If any helmets failed to meet the required standards the whole batch was destroyed. In addition, a report on each test batch of five helmets was sent to TELARC, Mr Tapley said. In the retention test, the webbing chin strap of the motor-cycle helmets is subject to a strain of 135 kg for Australian specifications, and if the strap stretches more than 25mm the helmet is rejected.

Besides motor-cycle and equestrian helmets, Star Products also make helets for canoeists and rock climbers. These are made individually because the demand is not great. Mr Tapley has also been developing a helmet for cyclists, but he sees no urgency in the matter because there is no demand in New Zealand at the moment for such safety equipment. But he believes that New Zealand will follow the example of Australia if proposals are accepted to make safety helmets compulsory for cyclists in that country.