Director and Consultant at Faleafa Investments & Consultants Limited
When Rhys Faleafa was General Manager of iconic New Zealand streetwear brand Huffer, he would pitch up at business meetings with people expecting him to be streetwise and enterprising. But what they don’t always expect is that he’s a qualified Chartered Accountant with a wealth of consultancy, lecturing and audit experience behind him.
“Being a Chartered Accountant is always a benefit – and even more so in this economic climate,” says Rhys. “You have to be able to show that you’re serious about business; that your company is run in a disciplined and accountable way. When people see I’m a Chartered Accountant they know what they are getting and that we are going to be professional and well organised.”
The skills of Chartered Accountancy have allowed Rhys to accompany Huffer on a path of transformative growth. Over the past decade, the company has expanded its distribution to over 60 retail outlets in five countries and multiplied its turnover seven or eightfold.
“It is a cool New Zealand success story,” he smiles. “Everyone’s so proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.”
Aiming for the top
Rhys’s early years, however, gave little indication that he would end up guiding one of the edgiest fashion brands. Having acquired a BCom(Hons)/BSc in Accounting & Finance and Environmental Chemistry from the University of Auckland, he didn’t know what he wanted to be – but he knew he wanted to be something in business. Chartered Accountancy seemed to be a compelling route in.
“I had an interest in business and how things work – and accountancy is the key language of business. I chose Chartered Accountancy because everyone I spoke to said it was the most prestigious qualification in the industry, so I thought, ‘Why not aim for the top?’”
Having completed his professional exams, Rhys worked in audit for two years, providing him with the opportunity to work on major projects in Australia and Zimbabwe.
“Audit is a fantastic grounding because you get to work in so many different businesses in so many industries. You really get to see the nitty-gritty and how a business fits together.”
A further six months in business advisory gave Rhys the skills he required to set himself up as a business consultant, which is where he first encountered Huffer. “I got lots of contracts to advise small companies and Huffer became one of my clients in 2001. They had been operating for four to five years and were very small, creative, focused on sales but without much cashflow. I started advising them one day a week then upped that to 2-3 days and finally accepted their invitation to join full-time as General Manager.” It was a role he held until early 2014.
One of Rhys’s first tasks at Huffer was to ensure the company could meet demand. “The early 2000s were something of a boom time in New Zealand and we knew we needed to invest in new systems and people to be able to keep up.”
A great discipline
Investing in the Huffer team has included the creation of a dedicated admin team and hiring a full-time accountant (Chartered, of course). One of the company’s initiatives that Rhys most values was the formation of a formal non-executive board – comprising highly experienced business hands with backgrounds in Ernst & Young, international business and exporting.
“The discipline of reporting regularly to a board has been great for us – and their oversight and experience has really helped ensure we continue to go in the right direction and make the right decisions – even when those decisions can be quite painful.”
One such painful decision was curtailing the company’s dreams of US expansion. “Our timing was really unlucky. We formed a joint venture in the US in 2007, the global credit crisis hit and our US JV partner went into liquidation literally as our first delivery shipped.” With Rhys’s guidance, Huffer honoured its commitments to US buyers and determinedly continued to try to secure a foothold in the market. But with the US downturn continuing to punish the retail sector, the company made the decision to withdraw in 2011.
Sights abroad
But undaunted, Huffer’s sights were still on international expansion, focusing on Asia.
And are the skills of a Chartered Accountant still of value? “Yes, because, as a small business, we have had an awful lot to learn,” says Rhys. “The experience of being a Chartered Accountant has provided a depth of knowledge and analysis, a familiarity with what’s required in a business, plus it means I’ve got a great network of contacts whenever I need advice or to bounce around ideas. It’s certainly helped me – and Huffer – get where we are today. We’re building a great brand – and a great business.”
