Adding the final touch

Tucked away behind an unassuming concrete office in High St, Balclutha, is the factory floor of one of the town's best kept secrets: Classic Wood Products.

It is marketed simply as "suppliers of top quality timber products", and that is how owner-operator Colin Mitchell likes to keep things - low profile.

But during the past 30 years, he and wife Anne have quietly grown the business from nothing to one which employs nine staff - and which last year supplied 2800 coffins to funeral directors from Temuka south.

It is one of three coffin joiners in the South Island, and provides everything from ornately finished solid oak caskets to the "eco" version: a plain customwood version with no finish at all.

The business happily customises caskets.

When people asked for a specific colour, Mr Mitchell said he tried to find the factory-specified paint number to accommodate the family's wishes.

"We have painted caskets Massey Ferguson red, John Deere green and Ford blue."

The heaviest person put in one of the company's caskets weighed 400kg, he said.

The coffin was reinforced - glued, screwed and metal strapped along the bottom and sides - because the bottom falling out of his business, literally, was a worry.

"It's our business, and if it happened, we would lose our business."

Most caskets are supplied off the floor to funeral directors, who fit them with handles and drapery.

"When times are tough, we don't sell so many of the upmarket caskets. We tend to go through more of the lower-end caskets."

Its main casket distribution areas are Dunedin, Invercargill and Timaru.

"We've had letters back from some of the funeral directors [from families] thanking us for the beautiful casket," Mr Mitchell said, and added that is what the business was all about.

"We do it for the families."

- rachel.taylor@odt.co.nz