New Electrical Factory For City

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30155, 12 June 1963, Page 14

New Electrical Factory For City

British - made electrical motor control gear, including push-button start and nwtorprotective devices, was to be manufactured in New Zealand in a new factory to be built in Christchurch, said the president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Feder'ation (Mr R. H. Stewart) in Christchurch last evening.

The initial manufacture of the control gear would begin this year, he said. The factory would employ up to 100 men and would eventually save New Zealand about £lm a year in overseas exchange. Mr Stewart, the managingdirector of two electrical equipment and plastics companies in Christchurch, said he would form a separate company to associate with a well-known English electrical company in the venture. Negotiations had not been completed yet, and he could not name the English company at this stage. Mr Stewart, who returned last evening from a business visit overseas, said that while the pattern of New Zealand buying from Great Britain was changing. New Zealand still bought just as much as it ever did. The manufacturers of finished products in Britain were concerned at the io-

creasing industrialisation in New Zealand, but the British manufacturers of materials and capital goods for industry welcomed the change because it meant increasing business for them “The manufacturers of finished products consider that they can co-operate with New Zealand manufacturers in the production here of the finished British products Many of them feel that they can co-operate, on a share basis, in the New Zealand manufacture of products similar to their own lines. “The British manufacturers are prepared lo share the capital costs and provide the know-how in techniques and skills, with New Zealanders providing capital and manpower.

"The Government, I think, would welcome this association as it would save part of the drain on New Zealand’s overseas funds for royalty payments, and for imports where the products which could be produced on a share oasis are not made in New Zealand.

“The techniques that the English companies would be prepared to provide in such partnership or associate ventures here, would include a wealth of knowledge and experience in the export of goods for sale on world markets,” Mr Stewart said.