We're celebrating 20 years in business importing, selling and servicing Segway Personal Transporters (PTs) in New Zealand.
For the past 10 years we've also been the world's longest-established International Distributor of Segway products. No one in the world has been in this business, uninterrupted, for as long as we have.
We introduced the category of capable personal electric mobility devices to New Zealand, and continue to enthusiastically promote micro-mobility it in its ever-broadening forms.
Here's a brief summary of how we started and got underway during our two years of business.
Philip Bendall imported the first two Segway PTs into New Zealand in September 2003 and began trading as Segway Hire, providing Segway PTs for corporate brand experience promotions, corporate and group entertainment activities, and more. These first two PTs were HT i167 models, and a couple of months later he imported a long-coveted e167 (this was the model with the otherworldly e-Stand feature, enabling it to wait, self-balancing on the spot without a rider).
Philip more broadly launched the Segway PT to tremendous acclaim at Big Boys Toys in November, and by Christmas 2003 he'd sold the first two PTs to a private buyer in New Zealand.
In 2004 Segway Hire became Segway New Zealand as sales of PTs began to take off. Customers that year included those wanting to be first to own the latest and greatest in new technology and be pioneers in the personal mobility revolution. Our first mobility impaired individuals also sought out Segway PTs to get around on, including a customer who'd had a leg amputated, a customer with a spinal injury that made walking very difficult, a person with MS (multiple sclerosis) and a person with Cerebral Palsy.
We also sold our first Segway PT to a prominent cameraman in the film and TV industry, and Massey University became the first campus to use a Segway PT for site security and parking enforcement.
By the end of the year we'd effectively established "beach heads" in all of the important market sectors for Segway PTs that had been identified to date. Total sales were around 25 units, and we took the first steps towards establishing a nationwide Agent/Dealer network. By that time we'd also designed and developed our own golf club holder mounted onto the front of the HT i167, with the intention of promoting the Segway PT as a new form of golf cart.
Our brand experience/brand promotion/corporate event activity business grew very quickly that year, and we worked with many of New Zealand's best-known brands, including Vodafone, V Energy Drinks (Frucor), Genesis Energy, AA, BNZ, ASB, Lion Breweries, Wyndham Resorts, and Mitre 10. We began the first of many appearances on TV shows, and were featured in many magazines and newspapers thereby exposing the Segway brand nationwide.
In October 2004 Philip travelled to Bedford, New Hampshire, USA to visit Segway, Inc. headquarters and manufacturing plant, where he signed an Exclusive Distributor Agreement for New Zealand. The same week Segway, Inc. inked agreements with Australia and with France, and now the world had its first three International Distributors of Segway products (in addition to a rapidly growing list of US Dealers across America). By 2006 there would be at least 50 Dealerships across the US, and International Distributors in more than 50 countries.
The original Australian Distributor closed down in 2008 (replaced in 2009 by two new Distributors, both continuing in business today), and the French Distributor closed down ~2012 (a couple of years later the original founder started up again in the Segway business, and continues in business today).
Consequently, Segway New Zealand is the world's longest-established International Distributor of Segway products.
We also think we've outlasted the earliest-established US Dealers, meaning that today we may very well be the longest-established seller of Segway products in the world.
