F&P Sells One Million Appliances In Single Year

Fisher & Paykel Appliances Sells Record One Million Appliances In Single Year

New Zealand appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd has a million reasons to thank its staff and customers this year. The Auckland-based company sold a record one million appliances in a single year for the first time since the company was founded nearly 70 years ago.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances reached the million mark just days before the end of its financial year on Monday this week (31 March, 2003). The sales milestone represented an increase of 11.5% on the number of appliances sold the previous year. The figure includes appliances manufactured at the company’s East Tamaki and Australian plants, and exported to 40 countries.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances now earns some $600 million in annual export revenues, more than the country earns from the marine industry, and several times the export earnings from wine.

Although the company has the lion’s share of the New Zealand market, and more than 20% of the Australian market, it is still a relatively small player by world standards.

“We are not chasing turnover for the sake of it – we are firmly focused on profitability,” says Managing Director John Bongard. “There are many manufacturers fighting for market share at the bottom end of the market – that’s not where we want to be.

”Our approach is to drive sales through significant technology advantages developed in New Zealand and protected by more than 400 international patents.

“We want consumers to choose our products because they are the best, not because they are the cheapest.”

Mr Bongard said Fisher & Paykel Appliances is committed to a policy of continuous product development, which has so far produced four major breakthroughs to give the company’s appliances a significant competitive advantage.

These are:-

The computerised Smart Drive® washing machine

The “DishDrawer®” technology which produced an entire new concept for dish washers.

The “Active Smart®” system for controlling refrigerators.

The new “SmartLoad” high capacity, top loading clothes dryer announced today, offering previously unobtainable features to the top end of the US market.

Mr Bongard says the company’s development programme also included updating and refreshing existing product platforms with appealing new features right across the company’s appliance range.

© Scoop Media