'Hard Times Ahead’ For Manufacturers

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31136, 12 August 1966, Page 14

' Hard Times Ahead’ For Manufacturers

(Neu’ Zealand Press Association! AUCKLAND, August 11. New Zealand manufacturers had relatively easy lives at present, but times would get harder, said Professor F. G. Moore, head of the department of industrial management of the University of Michigan.

“Consumer demand in New Zealand is so great that many manufacturers readily sell all they can produce.” Professor Moore said in Auckland today. Professor Moore is in New Zealand to advise the University of Canterbury on the org-

anisation of a Sir James Fletcher memorial chair in business. Hard competition which existed between manufacturers in other industrial countries was not yet evident in New Zealand But it would come, said Professor Moore The problem for the New Zealand manufacturer was production, not selling. “Companies here have to work under such stringent regulations, particularly regarding importing of machinery,” he said. “Your extreme shortage of

labour is also a problem that will not get any better. “If a company can get around the production problem then it can easily sell its products." Competition, enforced in the United States by law, ensured that the customer got a better deal. “I would expect a more competitive atmosphere to reach New Zealand in the future,” said Professor Moore “The situation would improve if the Government encouraged immigration and lowered import restrictions "