Auskin Group Pty Ltd, based on Queensland’s Gold Coast, has turned a modest wholesale business providing sheepskin souvenirs to tourists into a growing export business with the help of Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC).

Auskin manufactures and distributes a diverse range of sheepskin products including luxurious carpets, bedding and lambswool rugs for babies and medical applications.

About a fifth of Auskin’s production – up to 150,000 skins annually – is sold in Europe and the United States to the makers of ‘ugg boots’, an Australian footwear icon for generations that has become curiously fashionable for a celebrity-led market overseas.

Auskin founder, Dennis Hu, arrived in Australia from China in 1990 with a degree in electronics ready to work for a local company that was soon to go into receivership, leaving Dennis to scramble for a sales job in a duty-free store.

“Working in the duty-free shop, I saw that sheepskin products were very popular items with tourists and I decided to get into that business,” said Dennis Hu. “I started the company 15 years ago as a wholesaler of sheepskin rugs to the tourism market. Then we moved into manufacturing and now we’re in expansion mode.”

“We’re involved in every aspect of the ‘woolskin’ industry from procurement and product design in Australia and New Zealand to production in China to sales and distribution worldwide,” said Dennis Hu.

EFIC and NAB are assisting Auskin’s expansion with EFIC Headway, a financial guarantee from EFIC to a participating bank. EFIC Headway helps eligible small to medium-sized exporters to access additional working capital finance from their bank, without the need to provide added security.

“We had facilities available from our bank but we didn’t have enough security to obtain more funds from NAB for our expansion. NAB referred us to EFIC Headway and its support has been very important for us.”

EFIC Headway is helping Auskin to establish export distribution arrangements in the United States and Europe.

EFIC Headway is distributed by NAB, Westpac, HSBC, ANZ, BankWest, Commonwealth Bank, Bank of Queensland, Bendigo Bank and St.George.