N.Z. Export Fair country’s biggest export drive

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 19

N.Z. Export Fair country’s biggest export drive

By

ADRIAN BROKKING,

commercial editor

After you pass through : the truly beautiful entrance 'lane, and enter the grounds of Ellerslie Racecourse (proper, the first thing you ! notice is eight hogget carl cases slowly turning on a ( spit over a huge bed of hot : charcoal. A notice says that 1 p.m. (is “come-and-get-it” time for j free helpings of barbecued I lamb, but when you turn up' 'you cannot get to within 50 ( I metres of the spot. This was one of the nice' i touches at the New Zealand , Export Fair held last week in I Auckland — popular with j foreign visitor and native i alike, and it did not do New Zealand’s image anv harm. I The stands and public en-i ■closure of Ellerslie Race-1 course made an attractive venue, and good organisation plus a fine wide-ranging display of New Zealand products played their part to make this a successful fair. An estimated 1500 I businessmen attended, from i countries as far away as ICanada and The Lebanon, , and everv country in be-: : tween. This was more than I ;double the expected number; ’of foreign visitors. The visitors were welli looked after. A public office I ; was staffed round the clock I ;tr> help them with any prob-1 dems, a profusion of attractive hostesses were everI ready with information, and many firms provided places ;to rest, with free refresh- ■ ments, and cocktail parties ’ I after hours. The Development Finance ( ; Corporation provided a large ! ' comfortable lounge for I

(people to relax at any time lof the day, with free coffee , during the day, and wine, cheese and pate snacks after 14 p.m. The wines were of the (best New Zealand can offer, i and much appreciated by the j visitors. In fact, this lounge facility (was very popular, and from my own observation as many business deals were made ■ there as on the stands. It was ! here that I talked with an official from Papua New Guinea ("this man is -eally in a position to influence trade policy) who told me that he was firmly convinced that Papua. New Guinea should switch much of its Australian trade to New Zealand. > Historically, the fair began in 1975 with a small trade mission to Papua New Guinea. On hat occasion 25 businessmen from Papua New Guinea were invited to visit New Zealand on a kind of “reverse mission.” Next year saw a visit to Malaysia, and altogether 70 foreign businessmen came to New Zealand under rhe I scheme. This year, Export (Year 78. the Auckland divi- ! sion of the N.Z. Export TnstiI tute campaigned for sponI sorship of a much larger I number of foreigners. The idea was that every New Zealand exporter should assist one or two of his best clients to dome to the fair. After all,! that costs no more, and probably less, than going with (your wares on a trade misi sion. ! “Get them here, assist (them, make it easy for them

to come — everybody will, benefit from greater numbers of visitors,” was the; motto. The Export Institute itself! sponsored selected visitors i from new areas, where New! Zealand penetration is still low. The response to this cam-! paign was that 600 foreign! visitors were registered with| the Institute. However, oni the opening day of the fair,' the Institute was swamped; an estimated further 900 visitors came off their own bat. Like the man from Honolulu, who heard of the fair and jumped on the next plane to be in time for opening day. Even more pleasing, the visitors did not only look, they ordered. One firm on Tuesday morning received two orders while they were still putting up their stand. Then there was the visitor from the Cook Islands who got so excited with a food display looking like a miniature supermarket — complete with stocked freezer, refrigerated glass cupboards, and shelves full of goodies — that he pulled a thick wad of money out of his pocket and said: “I’ve got $BOO here. I’ll buy the b . . . lot, I’ll buy it all.” The offer was promptly; accepted. The chairman of the! organising committee (Mr ( Jim Fletcher) said that, he! was overjoyed at the success! of the fair. The only disappointing as- i pect of the fair, to me, was the scarcity of Christchurch exhibitors. Of the 350 firms displaying their products, only 12 were listed from

Christchurch: this included T. J. Edmonds and Buntings, who exhibited through their Auckland divisions, Skellerups, who showed their Poly-Flor products through this division, and some Crown Crystal products shown on one of the Alex Harvey stands. It would appear that many Christchurch manufacturers were missing out on a firstclass opportunity to display their products to keenly interested overseas buyers. C. W. F. Hamilton’s attractive display drew a lot of attention: of course, this firm is an old hand at exporting and displaying at fairs. Shelter Engineering vividly demonstrated their air supported building water containment products and hoses by pumping water through a New Zealandmade pump round a pool made from a large plastic ground sheet. None of the Christchurch exhibitors I spoke to regretted coming to Auckland — rather the contrary. Cyclone, who are already exporting 8 per cent of production, had had a good in-

.quiry, the marketing man-; ager (Mr D. Columbus) said. He was confident that (sales would eventuate, and I was especially pleased with (the inquiries from other' than the firm’s traditional; export markets. The stand of Lane Walker; .Rudkin had a continual, stream of visitors — I could; (never get near enough to the! (marketing manager (Mr D.! ; R. Phillipson) to speak with' him. A spokesman for Tait! Engineering, who displayed a range of their attractive' latest radio communications | equipment, said that they; had a successful fair. Mr D. Blackwell’s engin-! eering firm had done much better at the fair than expected, he said. During the last year they had been exporting to the East Coast of Australia, but now they had made contacts in Fiji, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, and he was very pleased with the widened sphere, he said. David Blackwell, Ltd, shared a stand with the firm of R. Auton, who displayed; a power press of their own ; design which seemed a fine example of kiwi ingenuity. It fills a gap in the market, Mr Auton said happily, and he was “wrapt” with; the result of the display. He, had four overseas agencies! signed up, and as a result of! the orders received he would; have to expand his four-man! business. When I asked him if the; press was protected by patents, Mr Auton said that it was difficult to do so. He intended to produce efficiently, cost the product sharply, and market effectively, he said, to stay ahead of the competition. Now that is good business thinking.