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1992 | A local Christchurch business is bought by Greg Allison and Quentin Allison manufacturing kitchens for the domestic market |
1994 | Using Greg's furniture and cabinet-making background and Quentin's engineering background, a machine is built to post-form melamine board, creating two seamless edges on melamine board and bringing European trends to New Zealand! The business name is changed to Panelform and stops selling retail kitchens, focusing on supplying the kitchen and joinery trade with pre-finished cabinet doors |
1997 | Panelform purchases it's first large through-feed edgebander - an IMA machine. Both postformed and PVC-edged melamine doors and sold throughout New Zealand |
1999 | Panelform purchased it's first large beam saw |
2001 | Panelform adds 'U' formed (180 degree formed) end panels to its range to complement postformed melamine doors. |
2005 | Panelform moves to a new larger building in Wigram, Christchurch (current site) |
2006 | Panelform adds thermoformed doors to its product range and purchases its first CNC routing machine |
2010 | Responding to changing market conditions as a result of the Global Financial Crisis, Panelform manufactures thousands of desktops and mobile furniture units for Christchurch City Council under contract to Aspect Furniture Systems |
2011 | Following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in September 2010, a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake devastates Christchurch City with 181 people killed. Panelform is fortunate there is little damage to their equipment and buildings. |
2011 | Panelform phases out its postformed doors range - the one that began it all! 17 years of production and thousands of kitchens throughout New Zealand - many still installed and looking as new in 2020! |
2013 | Panelform purchases its first flatbed CNC line with self-loading and unloading. They also produce their first ultra high-gloss doors, responding to new trends |
2014 | EasyOrder online quoting/ordering is launched. After innovating constantly throughout the years, Panelform sees the future of online quoting and ordering |
2017 | Panelform invests in new glueless edging technology commonly known as 'laser-edge' technology, introducing the ZeroLine sub-brand which becomes hugely popular. Panelform also introduces it's first acrylic doors - StyleLite |
2019 | Panelform extends the factory building, which more than doubles factory floor space. Significant investment is made into new state-of-the-art machinery with the latest technology. The 'Prestyle' brand is also launched after demand for paint-ready MDF doors increases |