When you visit the tiny Central Hawke’s Bay settlement of Otane, polo and croquet are not the first thing that springs to mind – but they probably should be.

Just outside this country village is a multinational company exporting polo mallets and croquet equipment to clients in more than 50 countries around the world.

Wood Mallets Ltd is owned by George Wood, who’s lived in Otane for most of his life; in fact the business is run from a 10 hectare block his parents bought when they immigrated to New Zealand when he was nine.

A one-time semi-professional polo player, Wood is now one of the world’s top polo mallet makers.

The fact Otane is a fairly isolated spot, has never worried Wood.

He says his Wood Mallets website, www.woodmallets.com gets more than 350 visitors a day from all over the world.

George puts his success down to constant product improvement, intensive internet marketing, and an efficient courier service which sees the high quality polo and croquet mallets distributed to a global market within a week.

Working with HB Inc and thanks to a Technology New Zealand research and development grant, Wood has been able to develop a new high-tech polo mallet made of fiberglass and carbon in an organic sheath, to replace the traditional cane mallet.

“It’s taken us 17 years, and we’re still tweaking it, but it’s better than anything else out there,” George says.

Two of the world’s top polo players are trialing the new mallets, and polo retailers around the world want to stock them.

“We can only produce 10 a day at the moment so we’re just gearing everything up right now to be able to produce more, it’s all very exciting,” says George.

So the next time you see a sleepy little town, look closer because hiding in those quiet streets maybe a successful multinational company.