France’s English-speaking colony
The Franco-German investment in New Zealand is just as extensive in its way as the British presence was in its heyday prior to UK membership of the EU. This is the main reason why the New Zealand/EU (sans Britain) trade deal is regarded with such favour by the two pillars of the EU. The scope of the French presence in New Zealand is especially pervasive encompassing as it does so many industrial sectors. It is one reason why New Zealand premier John Key seen here on the reviewing stand with French cabinet members was accorded such a warm welcome in Paris (photo: Roland Berjon)
In order of industry dominance here are the major French-owned companies in New Zealand:-
These are just the French companies with site operations here. We can also consider L’Oreal, and in the industrial category, Laval, Michelin and St-Gobain (glass) which is also the world’s longest established company.
If we look at the Franco-German EU axis, then we can also see complete dominance in the luxury car sector here with BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Citroen, Renault.
The presence of Danone and Parmalat underline the way in which French companies, after some delay, are filling the pastoral process vacuum left by the old British companies.
The arrival of Bollore in New Zealand with the acquisition of Gameloft is a pointer to French intervention here in computer inspired leisure.
from the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk - Wednesday 12 October 2016
The Principal Sponsor for 2016 Prefab Aus is XLam, a New Zealand-born CLT company who by mid-2017 will be mass-producing 60,000m3 of CLT annually out of its new Australian manufacturing plant in the Albury Wodonga region.
Depending on the value of XLam’s CLT and the company’s level of service, its manufacturing plant could be a welcomed resource for Australian designers and developers looking to incorporate CLT in their projects.
To date, no Australian CLT project has used Australian manufactured CLT with Strongbuild using Austrian company Binderholz to bring its product into the Australasian market and Lendlease previously using the KLH UK and Austria’s Stora Enso.
Jay-Evan Paskell completed a gateway placement at Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders Ltd at high school. After enjoying that placement, a careers advisor at school helped him get an interview with Advanced Aerospace Ltd, also known as C-Quip International. After five years refining his skills and knowledge as a composites technician, Jay-Evan has spent the last year as the supervisor of the clean room, and the Laminating Team Leader.
Jay-Evan has completed a Level 3 Boatbuilding Pre-Apprenticeship, a Level 3 Composites qualification, and is currently working towards completing his Level 4Composites qualification. After that he wants to work towards leading a larger team or working as a project manager.
Highlights of Jay-Evan’s apprenticeship include winning trophies at NZMAC ITO’s annual Marine Trades Challenge, and travelling to Australia to compete
“Work hard and stick with it, complete units and work your way up.
It may not start easy but you can get to where you want to be with hard work, and gain experiences.”
A NZ Marine & Composites ITO release - Monday 10 October 2016
Jay-Evan Paskell completed a gateway placement at Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders Ltd at high school. After enjoying that placement, a careers advisor at school helped him get an interview with Advanced Aerospace Ltd, also known as C-Quip International. After five years refining his skills and knowledge as a composites technician, Jay-Evan has spent the last year as the supervisor of the clean room, and the Laminating Team Leader.
Jay-Evan has completed a Level 3 Boatbuilding Pre-Apprenticeship, a Level 3 Composites qualification, and is currently working towards completing his Level 4Composites qualification. After that he wants to work towards leading a larger team or working as a project manager.
Highlights of Jay-Evan’s apprenticeship include winning trophies at NZMAC ITO’s annual Marine Trades Challenge, and travelling to Australia to compete
“Work hard and stick with it, complete units and work your way up.
It may not start easy but you can get to where you want to be with hard work, and gain experiences.”
A NZ Marine & Composites ITO release - Monday 10 October 2016
A group that began as a small air conditioning and refrigeration business in a shed on the Nadi Back Road in Fiji has grown into a hi-tech engineering outfit with state-of-the-art CNC machines and robotics.
With a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in the refrigeration and light engineering industries, the J Kevi Group has forayed into manufacturing quality engineered goods for the consumer export market around the Pacific Islands region and beyond. It has recently completed the construction of a large tooling, fabrication and manufacturing facility entirely dedicated to exporting its products.
“It’s 100 per cent export oriented,” says Kevi N Reddy, the group’s youthful Chief Executive Officer. Mr Reddy earned his degree in Mechtronics from the University of Western Australia and spent a few years’ designing and building industrial kitchens for QSR brands around Australia. He returned to his native Fiji a few years ago to assist his father Narendra Reddy to run and expand the family business.
The group, which has grown from just a couple to 100 employees and from a 120sq m space to 6 acres of land and building, manufactures an array of hardware components for the local building and construction industry. Its products are widely used in quality fittings for Fiji’s upmarket hospitality sector. It also sells and distributes utility vehicles like golf carts and industrial scale lawn mowing equipment.
The new line of engineered consumer products for exports comprises profiles, toolboxes, Ute-mountable trade boxes made of metal and others directed at the automotive professional and hobby markets in New Zealand and Australia.
The products are designed and crafted with the latest in CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine technologies. “This is the first time that such advanced machines are being used in the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Reddy told Pacific Periscope when we visited the group’s new plant in Nadi.
A new high-tech robot welding plant built in the United States is soon to join the shop floor. Again, it’s the first of its kind in the region, with only eight such machines in New Zealand, according to Mr Reddy. “Our products are all designed and manufactured to exacting New Zealand and Australian standards,” Mr Reddy said.
While using the best of materials and processes of a standard approved in New Zealand and Australia, Mr Reddy believes that it is Fiji’s lower overheads and operating costs that gives the group a price advantage. “While the standard of the product is the same as that made in New Zealand and Australia, the production costs are lower, therefore offering the same uncompromised quality for a lower price for consumers in those countries,” he adds.
The group is preparing in right earnest to launch its line in New Zealand in the next couple of months. It has already incorporated a company in Auckland. Pacific Trade & Invest (PT&I) NZ Trade Development Manager Ian Furlong said PT&I was working with the J Kevi Group, helping establish a distribution network in Auckland. As well as New Zealand, Mr Kevi said the group was planning to export also to Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu.
Mr Reddy hopes Fiji’s engineering sector will rise to the occasion and become an attractive and cost efficient manufacturing hub for the New Zealand and Australian markets, with the advantages of proximity, an English speaking workforce and the same materials and manufacturing process standards. “We are proud of using the Fijian Made logo,” he says.
The group plans to make its products available in New Zealand before year end.
For more information, please email PT&I Trade Development Manager Ian Furlong at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A Pacific IslandsbTrade & Invest release
New Zealand-based SPL Ltd, engaged in manufacturing and marketing of hand dryers, will introduce its products in India in partnership with city-based Mrinalini Industries according to a report in Business Standard.
The joint venture agreement would be of 'knowledge sharing' for SPL Ltd, while its Indian partner will manufacture the hand dryers at its factory in Irungattukottai near Chennai, SPL's Founder and Managing Director John Stares said here today.
"It is a first of its kind initiative. The New Zealand government wants to promote trade and industry with India. So through this joint venture, we will be selling hand dryers domestically that are locally produced. Right now, what is available in the market are imported," he told PTI.
Under the agreement, the hand dryers will be of 60 per cent localisation, which would be increased to 100 per cent later.
The company, with revenues of NZD 3 million, will not have any stake in the JV and the tie-up is with the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative, he said.
Commenting on the investment plans, Mrinalini Industries Managing Partner R Elansudar said it would be about Rs 4 crore.
"Initial investment we made so far is about Rs 1 crore. We will be investing about Rs 4 crore. It will be done in stages. The plant will come up inside our existing factory at Irungattukottai," he said.
The hand dryer -- ELAN HD101 -- will be priced at Rs 8,500 in Tamil Nadu, he said.
The factory will have the capacity to produce 2,000 units per month initially, he said, adding the company plans to scale it up to 40,000 units.
Officials of the companies exchanged documents as part of the agreement at a function here in the presence of Honorary Consul of New Zealand, L Ganesh.
Ganesh, who is also chairman of Rane Group, said trade between India and New Zealand shot up by 46 per cent to reach USD 1.8 billion year last year.
"The trade between India and New Zealand is increasing rapidly. The two-way trade went up by 46 per cent to USD 1.8 billion last year, compared to what it was five years ago," he said.
Firms will need to adopt different strategies to adapt to varying growth speeds across the world, an economist has warned.
Dr John Glen, CIPS economist, said companies needed to "flex supply chains" in response to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), which lowered growth projections for 2016 from 3.4% to 3.2%.
Glen, who is also director of the Centre for Customised Executive Development at Cranfield School of Management, said: “There is... a requirement to be able to flex supply chains to turn on capability and supply in those parts of the world that are expanding, such as India for example."
He added firms also needed to be able to reduce capacity in “parts of the global economy that are not set to expand as quickly”.
September quarter inflation, due for release next Tuesday, is expected to be low, Assistant Governor John McDermott said in a speech to the Bay of Plenty Employers and Manufacturers Association in Rotorua today.
Dr McDermott said that inflation is expected to rebound in the December quarter and be at the bottom of the target range. It is important to understand why inflation has been lower than expected by the Bank and other forecasters, in order to set monetary policy going forward.
“There are several reasons for low inflation – both here and abroad. In New Zealand, tradables inflation, which accounts for almost half of the CPI regimen, has been negative for the past four years. Much of the weakness in inflation can be attributed to global developments that have been reflected in the high New Zealand dollar and low inflation in our import prices. Strong net immigration and increased labour market participation have also boosted the supply potential of the economy, meaning that New Zealand has been able to grow at a robust pace without generating significant inflation.”
There also appear to have been changes in how inflation is generated in New Zealand: the drivers and composition of net immigration influence the degree of associated inflationary pressure for any given migration flow, and inflation expectations appear to now place more weight on past inflation outcomes than they did prior to the global financial crisis.
“The Bank will continue to closely monitor developments in the drivers of inflation and investigate any persistent changes in how inflation is generated.
“The Bank’s goal remains to keep future annual CPI inflation outcomes between 1 percent and 3 percent on average over the medium term, with a focus on keeping future average inflation near the 2 percent target midpoint.
“As described in the September OCR review, monetary policy will continue to be accommodative. Interest rates are at multi-decade lows, and our current projections and assumptions indicate that further policy easing will be required to ensure that future inflation settles near the middle of the target range.”
Useful resources
* Read the speech* Policy Targets Agreement
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242