From gold rushes to world wars, Otago Furniture, as it is now known, has traded through many milestones in New Zealand's history.
There is a lot that has changed at the firm since its establishment 145 years ago - from working conditions to technology - but one thing has stayed the same: the craftsmanship involved in creating each piece of furniture.
Otago Furniture is a company that quietly goes about its business, with about 27 staff operating from premises in Teviot St, Dunedin.
Keeping under the radar has been a deliberate move. Producing furniture for commercial customers and for retail outlets, the largest of which is national chain Harvey Norman, it has no need to yell from the rooftops.
''We don't deal directly with the public ... we're just happy satisfying our customers,'' Mrs Haugh said.
It was her great-grandfather, Francis J. Butterfield, originally from Tasmania, who jumped ship and settled in Dunedin, who established the business.
In 1911, it became the Otago Chair Company and the real push in those days was making chairs.
The ''real breakthrough'' came when the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition was held in Dunedin from November 1925 until May 1926.
The Otago Chair Company had made some furniture for the exhibition but, at the last minute, the organisers realised they had no chairs for the banqueting hall and asked if the firm could make them.
It was already committed to other customers but a discussion was held with staff, who agreed to make them at night. They were made by candlelight in a machine shop that was then ''just a lean-to with a mud floor''. Enough capital was gained from the venture to allow the firm to move to larger premises.
Successive generations of the Butterfield family became involved in the firm - Francis's son M.C. Butterfield, and then two of his sons, Charles and Monty.
It expanded from making chairs into other furniture. After the war, it got a ''really good business going'' with package deals for returned servicemen and people setting up homes. It was the beginning of buying furniture and paying it off with hire purchase, Mrs Haugh said.
Her sister Kay Sneddon is involved in the family business through Chasmont Finance, which continues to lend to customers through various retailers and directly, via personal loans.
The Butterfield family opened retail shops in Invercargill, Oamaru, Dunedin, Christchurch and Timaru. Those stores, which extended into more than just furniture, closed in the late 1980s, when department stores ''weren't the thing'' and trading was difficult, she said.
Mrs Haugh, the daughter of Monty Butterfield, did not join the family business until 1995. The stores had never interested her but she had always been interested in the factory.
''I really admire people that take a rough piece of timber and end up with a nice piece of furniture. The process of that always interested me.''
She recalled going, as a child, down to the old factory in Great King St, where Centre City New World now is. It was a ''rabbit warren of a place'', perfect for games of hide-and-seek.
Previously a school teacher, she had never intended to get involved but after the death of the previous manager from cancer, she said she would ''have a go''.
''I came into a firm where everybody else knew what they were doing. I was the new one.''
The firm was fortunate to have such great staff; one staff member had worked there more than 50 years, there were at least two who had been there more than 40 years and it was nice to see young ones learning a trade.
Most of their new staff came in as trainees and served their apprenticeships, and a lot moved on - ''that's what you do when you're a lad'' - but one or two stayed and that was all the firm needed. It was very satisfying seeing those trainees progress through the ranks, she said.
It had also been very interesting to see the business continue to develop and grow and to see the staff develop.
A continuing challenge had been the increase of imported furniture, and the firm had to find a market that wanted to buy New Zealand-made.
In the 1990s, imported furniture was ''really taking hold'' and furniture companies had to realign themselves to find a niche for New Zealand-made products, she said.
She believed there was a place for both in the market. There were customers who wanted a lower-quality product and then those that wanted quality heritage furniture they could admire and use for years.
These days, the firm did more work for commercial customers than for retail. The retail trade was a lot harder because of the imported product.
Over the past several years, Otago Furniture had made furniture for the University of Otago halls of residence.
''That's lovely, because that's Dunedin products for Dunedin institutions,'' she said.
Rest-homes were a growing market and, this year, the company sent its first container-load of furniture to a New Zealand-owned rest-home in Melbourne.
Silver beech has been the firm's predominant timber, right back to the days of Francis Butterfield.
Every now and then, another timber replaced it for a while. Rimu was fashionable for a while and, at the moment, they were doing a lot of work with oak, which was largely due to the high dollar.
She believed beech timber would ''always be around''.
''It's got a lovely timber. It's got its own characteristics,'' she said.
The company had built up a good relationship with its Tuatapere-based beech supplier, which had sustainable recognition. It was important for the firm to know that what it was using was renewable.
Every year was different and customer requirements changed every year - ''you're never there, you're always evolving'' - and it was a case of ''making the most of every opportunity'', Mrs Haugh said.
There was still a handful of furniture manufacturers, although it was a declining group. Some had combined their own manufacturing with imports to ''get the best of both worlds''.
Craftsmanship at Otago Furniture was ''absolutely still the same'' and a lot of the machinery had not changed markedly over the years. While there was some modern machinery, some equipment dated back 70 years.
But the cushions were no longer stuffed with horsehair and the timber was bought kiln-dried, rather than air-dried, which required it being bought six months before use and stacked in huge heaps.
While it was special to have been in business so long, Mrs Haugh said it had its ''pluses and minuses, too''.
The company wanted to be perceived as being modern, but also having that background and history behind it.
Asked about the responsibility of being at the helm of such a long-running business, she said there was a feeling of ''you don't want to be the one that stops it'', but it was something that she tried not to think about.
The worst thing if the firm was ever to stop was not so much about its history as about all the families that relied on it, she said.
Asked what she saw the future of the business being, she said ''probably much the same''.
''People will always need furniture.''
But it was not enough to just say ''we're New Zealand-made, so buy us''.
''We've got to earn it, provide value for money and ... furniture that people want,'' she said.
She believed there would be opportunities with the rebuilding in Christchurch, although it was ''a little bit early yet''.
Mrs Haugh believed there would always be furniture manufacturers throughout New Zealand. It was a tradition that had to be kept up and for which training had to be maintained. She believed Francis Butterfield - who she understood was ''quite a character'' and with an eye for an opportunity - would be ''quite chuffed'' to see his business continuing after so many years.
