3 April 2002
Former Mitsubishi Electric subsidiary Melco New Zealand Ltd has been renamed and refocused as Black Diamond Holdings Ltd
(BDT).
BDT is a 95 percent New Zealand-owned company strongly focussed on leading edge technologies both in consumer goods and
channel retailing, Managing Director Ron Woodrow says.
“We’ve moved away from the mass market approach we once had to niche high-tech products that deliver real value to our
customers.
“BDT is also an investment company, investing in new technologies that can be exported around the world. We’re
particularly excited about this side of the business as it will deliver benefits to the whole country. New Zealanders
are great innovators and we want to get behind the people who can deliver exciting new technologies that we can develop
and export to the world. We’re working on some great projects now and will be involved with a lot more in the future.”
Founded in 1981, BDT is one of New Zealand’s leading consumer and computer electronic distribution companies. It
specialises in the marketing and distribution of high quality electronics and related products in New Zealand’s
computing, consumer, commercial, industrial and professional markets.
Mitsubishi Electric reduced its shareholding in Melco NZ in September 2000, selling down its majority shareholding to
Ron Woodrow and Executive Director Ken Lilley. As Melco is a name used by subsidiaries of Mitsubishi Electric
internationally, the name change was agreed as part of the purchase package. Mitsubishi retain just 5 per cent of BDT.
BDT employs around 80 staff in its three divisions – Computer, Consumer Electronics and Service/Spares. The company’s
head office is in Wellington, with other offices in Auckland and Christchurch.
BDT’s key agencies include Mitsubishi, AIWA, RCA/Thomson multimedia, Black Diamond, Maxtor, Microsoft, Leadtek, C-Net,
Gigabyte, Intel and AMD.
Ends