Meet Tony Hunt

Tony Hunt tried a lot of things before settling on the furniture trade.

“I left school at 15, and did courses in all sorts of things, like engineering, to find out what I liked,” he says.

“Then I got into manufacturing Customwood furniture, but that wasn’t really what I wanted either.”

What Tony wanted was to work with solid wood, and seven years ago he joined Forest Furniture in Hamilton, manufacturer of high-quality rimu and macrocarpa furniture.

Tony is the company’s production manager, but at the same time as running the factory, he’s also been completing an apprenticeship.

“I really wanted to do it,” he says. “I love working with wood, and it gives me something to fall back on. It’s good to have a trade qualification.”

Now aged 29, Tony is about to finish his apprenticeship.

He’s become so good at his trade that judges in the recent Top Furniture Apprentice Awards were prompted to award a special merit prize for his rimu wine chest.

“It had to be 600mm by 600mm, so we were limited in what we could make,” he said. “I made a wine chest. It holds five bottles of wine, and the glasses are in the lid. Underneath, in the base, is a hidden drawer that holds a cheese board, cheese knife and coasters.”

Tony says he has no regrets about taking on an apprenticeship as an older worker.

“I was a bit older than most apprentices, but it has been well worth it,” he says.