Switched-on electronics firm eyes Aust.

Press, 23 April 1983, Page 21

Switched-on electronics firm eyes Aust.

By

NEILL BIRSS

Another Christchurch electronics company is proving a high flyer in sales and growth. Brandt Electronics, 1975, Ltd, of Burnside, is pushing ahead with a range of products in both consumer and industrial electronics. In the consumer field, it is about to launch , into colour television sets;;its industrial goods include a sophisticated crane-safety device; and straddling the fields is a part for popular personal computers, which will allow them to run in colour. In the year to March 31 its multi-million dollar sales rose 64 per cent on the previous year. Brandt Electronics is clearly in the same promising class as Tait Electronics, which recently moved into the nearby Miller’s building in Bumside. ' There have been some notable failures in the region’s electronics firms, and the Brandt Electroncis success is no “right industry” windfall: it comes from careful strategic planning. Mr Taylor, after graduating in Canterbury with a commerce degree, joined the AMP Society, and spent six years in Australia in investment and merchant banking. On his return to New Zealand he was South Island manager of the Marac Corporation from 1974 to 1976, and began the electronics firm with a Mr John Brandt, whose ties with the firm were severed a few

years later. The firm began making light dimmers for the domestic' market. Soon cir-cuit-breakers, thermostats, variable' speed controllers and other products were added to the range. In the meantime, Mr Taylor became the principal of the firm, with a sleeping partner providing supporting capital. He‘ is managing director, and 12 months ago was joined in top management by Mr Tony Watson, the general manager. Mr Watson, an electronics engineer, previously the manager of an electronics firm with 300 employees, brought his family south from Auckland sb. that he could join Brandt ' Electronics, which he sees as having an exciting future and promising immense .challenge. “Our philosophy has been to build an organisation that works as a team, to capitalise on gaps in the market, and to retain flexibility so that we can move quickly,” Mr Taylor says. This is illustrated by the firm’s recruiting policy. The staff is now about 70, of whom 20 are technicians with qualifications in electronics. Mr Watson interviews applicants for every job in the plant, and has circularised schools to alert them to the type of person they are seeking—the pupil with a strong hobby interest in electronics. Finding market gaps is illustrated by the company’s

first foray into television manufacturing. Two and ahalf years ago no-one in New Zealand was making black-and-white television sets. “We decided to fill that z gap,” says Mr Taylor. Brandt Electronics began manufacturing portable black and white TV sets. They ran on both mains and battery current, sold at $299, and found a market as families’ second sets, and for use in caravans and baches. Eight thousand were made before production stopped recently. Earlier, the plant put out pocket radios. Most of the bigger firms in New Zealand were producing sets at a higher price. Brandt Electronics made a model that retailed at $14.95. In this case the product was modelled to fit a price gap in the market. “We did very well out of that product,” says Mr Taylor. The products progressed to clock radios, to radio cassettes, to mini-stereo sets, and latterly, to visual display units for business and home computers. The development, of industrial products, so strongly supported by the Industrial Development Commission report on the electronics industry, has been parallel to the consumer products. “We have used consumer products to build up a strong manufacturing base,” Mr Taylor says.