Fisher & Paykel is one of the great New Zealand brands, conjuring images of reliability and quality. After a big transformation this year, F&P has shown what can be achieved from a base Down Under. For this reason, Chief Executive Gary Paykel is Business Herald Business Leader of the Year.
ELLEN READ reports.
Friends of the intensely publicity-shy Gary Paykel cite an unwritten rule that the F&P head's private life must stay just that.
The man himself, however, sitting in his living room convalescing from surgery due to a quad bike accident a couple of years ago, seems more than happy to talk about himself.
He joined the company - which was founded in 1934 by his father, Maurice Paykel, and Maurice's brother-in-law Woolf Fisher - more than 40 years ago.
"I started January 25, 1960. I was 18 years old.
"I'd already worked on the assembly line for the school holidays and then worked in the toolroom, where they make all the dies, and then worked up in the drawing office.
"I enjoyed that - a couple of people were very patient with me," he says.
"Then I was asked to go into town. We had our offices in Lorne St, in the sales office there.
"Had a year and a bit there, then an opening came up for a rep so I was asked to go down to Palmerston North.
"I was there for a couple of years ... young, footloose and fancy free, it was great.
"Then Dottie and I got married and went down to Shacklock, as they were then, down in Dunedin. We had a year and a bit there, on the purchasing side, and then came back to Auckland on that side and have just gone through the company," he says in a typically modest way.
He never made a conscious decision to join the family firm - it was more just something that happened.
"I went and started to work down there in a couple of Christmas holidays and one thing led to another and I just stayed and stayed and stayed.
"I thought maybe I'd go to university and do something there, but it never really appealed to me. Farming certainly did, the outdoor life. And I'm a bit of a hunting, shooting, fishing man so that always appealed.
"In fact, Palmerston North was great for that. I used to go up through Apiti into the Ruahines, out to Santoft and up beyond Wanganui in the Paraparas. And up at Ohakune - there was no skifield there at that time, and a couple of the dealers were into shooting so I'd go up there, and after work out we'd go.
"I don't think I could shoot anything now," he adds. "We go skiing instead and get out on the ocean."
There's something typically New Zealand and nostalgic about the way he relates the past - like golden memories of a distant childhood.
However, the company and Mr Paykel himself have not been immune to criticism.
Last year was not what could be called a sterling one. The prevailing memory most would have is of the large number of redundancies announced as part of restructuring.
At that time Mr Paykel said: "It's like going to a funeral of someone you know and love very much. It's a dreadful thing to do - I've had to do it a couple of times here and it doesn't get any easier."
It probably doesn't, but life for F&P certainly has.
The year 2001 began with a $60.3 million March-year operating profit, exceeding forecasts of $55 million. The result was affected by $73 million in unusual items - including about $64 million in unrealised foreign exchange losses - which dropped the bottom line to $11.04 million.
Mid-year the company won its fight against "cheap" imports, which Mr Paykel claimed eroded the power of its normally higher-priced products in Australasia.
F&P asked the Government to consider bringing an action against Korean brands such as Samsung, which it claimed were being dumped here.
Both The Warehouse and Pacific Retail Group, which stock Korean brands, denied the allegations. But Commerce Minister Paul Swain agreed with F&P and announced a series of anti-dumping duties.
F&P also announced that it would, within 12 months, dispose of its investment in independent retailer Hill & Stewart, saying investment in retailers had never been part of its core business but one of providing transitional short-term support.
In June, Mr Paykel headed the list of those acknowledged in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to New Zealand commerce. He was made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his work for manufacturing and the community.
At a packed and occasionally emotional annual meeting in October, Fisher & Paykel shareholders voted to split the firm into two companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
The move to spin off the successful healthcare division from the whiteware business was announced last year. One of the new companies, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation, has listed 18 per cent of its stock on the US Nasdaq exchange.
Sister company Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings owns just under 20 per cent of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's shares.
Some attending the meeting described it as the end of an era for the company.
One board retiree was Maurice Paykel, aged 87, who told shareholders the company he co-founded in 1934 was stronger than ever.
He paid tribute to the people who had worked for him over those years, saying they were hard-working, loyal and innovative.
Doreen Norton, who joined the company in 1944, stood to congratulate and thank Mr Paykel and his colleagues.
"No one in those days, in their wildest dreams, would have thought they were writing the opening chapters of such a phenomenal success story," she said.
Mr Paykel was delighted at the strong interest in F&P Healthcare when the newly separated company listed on the Nasdaq in mid November, and points to the rise in value for shareholders to justify the move. Asked to sum up his role with F&P, Mr Paykel says he is no different from any of the other workers.
"I'm a paid servant of the company."
His "servant" role involves being chairman of the healthcare business and executive chairman of the appliance business.
Fisher & Paykel - from birth
* 1934 - Company founded in Auckland by Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel to import Crosley refrigerators, Maytag washing machines and Pilot mantel radios.
* 1938 - Sales agreement signed with Kelvinator Corporation, Detroit.
* 1939 - Company started assembling domestic and commercial refrigerators and washing machines.
* 1946 - Manufacturing agreement signed with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation.
* 1948 - Started manufacturing vacuum cleaners.
* 1950 - Started manufacturing Bendix automatic washing machines.
* 1955 - Mt Wellington plant started production of refrigeration and laundry products.
* 1956 - Started manufacturing rotary clothes dryers designed and patented by the company. Formed association with H. E. Shacklock, Dunedin, manufacturer of electric ranges.
* 1957 - Established Allied Industries to manufacture radios, radiograms and television receivers. This was the basis of Fisher & Paykel Electronics.
* 1959 - Manufacturing agreement signed with Hoover, England, to assemble washing machines and vacuum cleaners.
* 1962 - Started manufacturing commercial air-conditioning equipment.
* 1971 - Started manufacturing respiratory humidifier - F&P's first healthcare product.
* 1972 - Started manufacturing refrigerators and freezers in new premises at East Tamaki.
* 1975 - Mr Paykel became chairman of the company after the death of Sir Woolf Fisher.
* 1976 - Started assembling National Panasonic television receivers.
* 1979-80 - Listed on New Zealand Stock Exchange.
* 1980-81 - The company exported its one-millionth appliance. Agreement signed with Matsushita to market Technics audio equipment.
* 1985-86 - Gentle Annie, Fisher & Paykel's first electronic auto washer, launched.
* 1987-88 - Launch of the Fisher & Paykel brand in Australian whiteware market. Acquired Australian medical distribution company Medcor, now Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. Fisher & Paykel Pacific established in Hong Kong. Investment in New Zealand Steel.
* 1988-89 - Launch of Fisher & Paykel New Zealand, a maxi yacht which came second in the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race.
* 1989-90 - Construction began on first major appliance facility overseas, in Cleveland, Queensland. Ownership of New Zealand Steel restructured, resulting in Fisher & Paykel's holding 25 per cent of a consortium which includes BHP.
* 1990-91 - First Australian-manufactured refrigerator produced. Consolidation of Auckland whiteware operations at East Tamaki. Electronics Division stopped assembling colour televisions.
* 1991-92 - Opening of new plants at East Tamaki and Cleveland, Queensland. New-generation respiratory humidifier introduced by Healthcare division. Sale of investment in New Zealand Steel Holdings.
* 1992-93 - Launch of Fisher & Paykel brand in Europe, through the Domotechnica Appliance Trade Fair, Cologne, Germany.
* 1994-95 - Fisher & Paykel exporting to more than 80 countries. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare established in Britain.
* 1996-97 - Fisher & Paykel-branded Smart Drive auto washer sales started in US.
* 1998-99 - Healthcare opens French sales company covering France, Belgium and The Netherlands, and buys German distributor.
* 1999-2000 - Group profit of $54.4 million exceeds $50 million for the first time.
* 2000-2001 - Fisher & Paykel split into separate listed companies - Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings.
Fisher & Paykel is one of the great New Zealand brands, conjuring images of reliability and quality. After a big transformation this year, F&P has shown what can be achieved from a base Down Under. For this reason, Chief Executive Gary Paykel is Business Herald Business Leader of the Year.
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