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The Valley Forge was the first Company to combine forged steel with old, weathered Rhodesian Teak recovered from scrap Railway sleepers (crossties) lifted from the line of rail laid by Cecil John Rhodes in pursuit of his dream to link Cape Town with Cairo. During the decade of the 1990's The Valley Forge processed thousands of these old sleepers. It also pioneered the manufacture of one-off pieces of furniture incorporating old Zambezi Tonga Doors from Bunny Mentz's personal collection. The manufacturing side of the business soon outgrew the garage in Umwinsidale and moved to a shed on a farm 10 minutes further out of town, where it peaked in 1998 to a workforce of over 90 craftspeople. The showroom remained in Umwinsidale, which in the meantime had developed a reputation as the country's premier craft producing area. By now Bunny Mentz's wife Jan was also well and truly involved in the business, especially on the marketing and PR side. Customers would go from The Valley Forge to Umwinsi Ceramics and then on to see Patrick Mavros' world famous creations in silver , perhaps via The Tribal Chief or one of the specialist Shona Sculpture Galleries. Sadly today only a couple of these energetic centres of creativity remain. Foreign buyers accounted for about 80% of The Valley Forge's customer mix, both resident foreigners (diplomats, etc.) and visitors to Zimbabwe. Included amoungst the 20% local buyers was the Hospitality Industry in Zimbabwe. The Valley Forge made furniture for several restaurants and hotels, such as Hwange Safari Lodge and The Kingdom Hotel at the Victoria Falls. Within a short while The Valley Forge South Africa was born. Bunny Mentz now enjoys a far more hands-on involvement -- not just on the design side, but in the actual manufacturing processes as well. It was decided at the outset in South Africa that railway sleeper timber would no longer be used. Instead, magnificent hardwoods from all over the world would be combined with forged steel and his signature Tonga doors. Sadly the on-going deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe took it's toll on The Valley Forge in Umwinsidale. Bunny Mentz decided to pre-empt it's collapse and pay-off the remaining staff whilst it was still able to do so. Although mothballed in February 2004, it is hoped that one day, in some shape or form, The Valley Forge Zimbabwe may rise again. Until then however, his efforts are concentrated on getting the Knysna operation on the map. Apart from the furniture creations, some of which have been exported to the States, The Valley Forge in Knysna is also developing various "bread and butter"lines, such as ranges of wrought iron Curtain Hardware --rods, finials, hold backs and rings in 9 different finishes; wrought iron Bathroom Hardware -- towel rails, loo roll holders, etc. The Mentz's are planning to develop markets for their products in the big cities of South Africa, as well as abroad -- to their old friends from the Zimbabwe days and hopefully to new markets too. There are lots of new design projects on The Valley Forge's drawing board. Watch this space! Jonathan Russell "Bunny" Mentz joined the Leaf Tobacco Industry in Salisbury, Rhodesia (as it was at the time) at the young age of 17. He served that once great Industry for 29 years, initially as a buyer on the leaf auctions in Rhodesia, (later Zimbabwe), Zambia and the USA. The second phase of his Tobacco career was on the Marketing side, which involved travelling extensively all over the world. For several of these years he was involved in the cloak and dagger world of Rhodesian Sanctions Busting, based in Europe. This provided an invaluably rich and varied business experience, with many lessons unobtainable from textbooks. What this field of endeavour did not provide, however, was an outlet for Bunny's latent creative talents. The frustrated artist decided to do something about it and in 1990, The Valley Forge was born. Perhaps a blend of luck; the right product at the right time; hard work; a "can do"philosophy; an obsession with good design aesthetics and ergonomics whilst ensuring the products were finished to the very highest possible standard and "on "time" all played a part in the Company's success. "But the smartest thing I ever did was to bring my wife Jan in to help on the marketing side. Her beauty, charm and easy-going manner put customers from the 4 corners of the earth (several with very little English) at ease within minutes. New friendships developed and we are still in touch with customers from 15 years ago!". Bunny is currently engaged in developing a smaller,"tight ship" Valley Forge in Knysna, on South Africa's beautiful Garden Route."I am training a young welder from KwaZulu Natal in all aspects of the business. Together we have produced, to my mind, some of the best furniture since I started 15 years ago". In addition to his Tonga Door Collection and Designing Furniture, he has many and varied interests and passions: Painting, British Classic Sports Cars, Jazz, Tennis, the African Bush, to name but a few.
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