Recipe for Success FORM AND FUNCTION MEET FAMILY VALUES AT MICHAEL JOYCE.
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ccording to WMF, the distinguished tableware and cookware brand, top quality product is recognisable in the details. With cutlery, for example, it is essential that the eye takes delight in what the hand feels. Pieces must be a joy to the eye and a joy to the touch, completely smooth and comfortable with knife, fork and spoon moulding themselves naturally in your palms.
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Some believe form should follow function, but when it comes to homeware, we say they exist hand in hand. Such are also the beliefs of top NZ European homeware importer, Michael Joyce, a third generation company which pioneered the journey of European home-ware brands to New Zealand, more than 60 years ago. The company back then was a highend gift store in what used to be Auckland
city’s quaint Strand Arcade. “My father-in-law, Harold, opened the store when he came back to NZ after the war as a surviving pilot,” says Michael Joyce, the company’s namesake Managing Director. Harold kept the business going until 1974. “That year he came to me and asked if I’d like to buy it,” says Michael. Together with his wife, Michael purchased the shop and, over time, opened two more stores around