Interesting facts about Skellerup

• Danish Australian immigrant George Waldemar Skjellerup, who later dropped the silent 'j', was an entrepreneur. As well as establishing retailer Para Rubber and the Skellerup rubber manufacturing business, he founded the New Zealand salt industry at Lake Grassmere, in Marlborough, in the 1940s.

• For 28 years Skellerup sponsored the Young Farmer of the Year competition. The television programme about the competition was hosted for many years by Bob Parker, who is now Mayor of Christchurch. He will attend a centenary dinner in September as Skellerup's guest.

• New Zealanders typically have wider feet than Australians, which is something the Skellerup footwear designers have found out over time.

• Dairy liners are Skellerup's most prolific product. When first produced in the 1950s they were a round rubber tube similar to a bicycle tube, but cut into small sections, and sleeve-like with a cow's teat fitting inside. Technological advances with rubber mouldings meant the dairy liners evolved into an early version of what is now sold: a vacuum chamber fits over a cow's teat, simulates a squeezing action, and extracts the milk. Under vacuum the milk flows through a series of pipes, a filter and into a cooling vat in the dairy shed.

• All of the machinery used by Skellerup to make dairy rubberware has been designed and invented by Skellerup.

• Red Band gumboots were New Zealand's, and probably the world's, first short gumboot. They are a Kiwi icon and are still made the same way 52 years after they first rolled down the production line.

• Skellerup manufactures rubber componentry using cutting edge equipment, including plastics injection moulding machines which can bond rubber to a plastic component. Skellerup is one of only two companies in the world producing such components.

• For much of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, rubber footwear was the epitome of fashion. At that time, Skellerup manufactured half of New Zealand's total footwear requirements – 25,000 pairs of shoes rolled out of the Woolston factory daily and at times over 700 people were employed there.

• Aside from Red Band gumboots, the white canvas Commando shoe was the most popular product made by Skellerup Footwear. In its heyday, 250,000 pairs a year were sold. One season during the 1960s, Skellerup even released a "Doodle Sneaker" which came with a colouring-in kit which people could use to draw on their own designs.

• For a quarter of a century from 1965, Skellerup sponsored the Woolston Brass Band, which was affectionately known as the Skellerup Band. One of the country's premier brass bands, Woolston Brass boasts a record of championship success unsurprassed among New Zealand brass bands, gaining the Champion Band of New Zealand title 21 times since 1971. The band played on the factory lawn for staff on the Christmas holiday break-up day each year.

• In 1947 all branches of the company were combined under the Skellerup Industries banner. The Viking ship was used as the logo to reflect the pride in G.W. Skjellerup's Danish ancestry, and was symbolic of courage and endeavour. The logo has been revised twice and today is a mark of quality.

• The Jiangsu footwear factory in China can produce up to 1,000 pairs of Red Band gumboots a day.

• Skellerup had the occasional special footwear order at its Marathon Rubber factory in Christchurch. A pair of body waders was made for the Duke of Edinburgh and countless pairs of boots were produced for customers with very large legs and feet.

• Snowboarders, skiers, wakeboarders and water skiers enjoy their sports with the help of Skellerup business Ultralon Products, a niche market exporter specialising in performance plastic foam for the world's top snowboard, ski, water ski, and wakeboard brands.

• Skellerup Glacier in Antarctica was named in honour of Peter Skellerup. The son of the founder, Peter began his career at Skellerup as an office boy in 1934 and worked his way up to be chairman in 1982, a role he held until 1987. He was a well-known benefactor of Christchurch projects and served on the city council for many years. Peter Skellerup had a passion for Antarctica. He died in May 2006.

• As a community service, orders for special Skellerup shoes or boots that were referred from Christchurch Hospital were only charged a dollar extra even though it involved an extra three or four days of work.

• In the 1980s the 'Skellerup All Star' brand of sport shoe was available. The most famous sports people to wear this brand included Dame Susan Devoy and Jeff Simpson.

Footwear Specialist Brian McFall has created a footwear museum at Skellerup's Woolston factory. He has a pair of every boot the factory ever produced including the first ones to roll off the production line and the last ones ever made in the Christchurch factory.

Photographs of this 'museum' are available on request.