Firms’ Worth Doubted

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31385, 2 June 1967, Page 8

Firms’ Worth Doubted

English firms that were not doing as well as they might in New Zealand should come out here and take a “hard, cold look at their representation arrangements,” said the head of the Australia-New Zealand department in the overseas division of the Confederation of British Industries (Mr W. McK. Wright) yesterday.

Some of the firms here had grown too big and sometimes they had grown too old, he said.

When some of these firms were selected as representative some generations ago, they were young, active and enthusiastic, said Mr Wright. But sometimes the qualities they were selected for disappeared with time. “I am afraid this is a hard fact of life, not only in New Zealand but throughout the world,” said Mr Wright. "Some firms took on far more than they could handle.” In Christchurch Mr Wright will visit firms, the Harbour Board, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association. He said that he was in New Zealand to find what openings there were now and in the next few years, for exports and for industrial investment. Mr Wright said that the United Kingdom did not regard New Zealand as a dumping ground for export surplus. New Zealand took £l3O million of British goods in 1966, which was about 2 per cent of Britain’s export figure.

He said that trade between the countries was not automatic. “I am sure that the British manufacturers are not taking as many steps as they should to ensure their share of New Zealand trade,” said Mr Wright. Mr Wright said that New Zealand’s success in secondary industry depended on how hard it tried. “Australia

is selling successfully, but she bad to look at her prices," he said. ' “Australia is selling to South-east Asia and I don’t see any reason why you cannot either.” Discussing Communist China as a possible market for New Zealand, Mr Wright said he saw no reason for assuming that China was more likely to buy than other countries in South-east Asia, The Confederation of British Industries, to which Mr Wright belongs, is represented in New Zealand by the British Trade Association of New Zealand.