Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
Today we have learnt of the sale of Sistema Plastics to US multinational Newell Brands, in addition to the recent sale of Compac Sorting Equipment, another highly successful New Zealand manufacturing company, to Norwegian company TOMRA in October, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA).
NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “These sales, alongside the recent announcement of the closure of the General Cable plant in Christchurch, may well leave some wondering what is happening to manufacturing in New Zealand. In reality, the situation is ‘steady as she goes’, with manufacturing continuing to be the second-largest contributor to GDP and showing moderate long-term growth rates with less of the huge swings in export revenue, for example, that characterises the commodities part of our economy.
“Within the manufacturing sector there is constant change, with companies closing down and new ones arising, and others growing their business. Most of our manufacturers are fully exposed to the rough winds of global competition, whether that’s in exporting, or in competing with importers in our domestic market, not to mention the effect of an overvalued currency hitting margins and competitiveness.
“Our manufacturers have made big changes, especially post-GFC, to get and stay fighting-fit in tough markets, and sometimes conditions change to an extent that makes it unsustainable to continue.
“While each story needs to be examined on its own merits, there are common elements between Compac and Sistema. Both have been built into large successful New Zealand manufacturing companies over the past three decades by owners who have put a lot of hard work and money into it. They now want to exit the company while ensuring the new owners will keep it on a steep growth path, and preserving jobs in New Zealand.
“One might have preferred for the business to ‘stay in New Zealand hands’, but the reality is that not only are our capital markets thin as we collectively prefer to invest in real estate rather than the productive parts of our economy, but the deals also make a lot of commercial sense, as the new owners in both cases provide access to their resources, including vast marketing, sales and distribution networks.
"As Brendan Lindsay says “Newell has the expertise and market access that will enable them to take the business to the next level and create new opportunities for the company, especially in North America.” Add to that a huge investment in a new production facility in Auckland and an employment guarantee for its 700 staff and you have a reasonable prospect of this deal working well for New Zealand, with the only possible downside being the common international business practice to minimise local tax obligations leading to a loss of tax revenue for New Zealand.
“It is vital that we keep building our manufacturing base and capability to produce more high-value products, especially when the manufacturing eco-system relies on a network of capable manufacturers making up each other’s supply chains and building the industry’s general ability to produce complex goods and skills. Our focus needs to be on building an environment where manufacturing can grow and prosper. The availability of suitable skilled staff, keeping up with changes in manufacturing technology, and a less punishing exchange rate especially with Australia, our main trading partner, will be critical for that.
“We hope to see quality discussion on how to make the most of our manufacturing base to grow exports and jobs going into the next election.” Says Dieter.
Total manufacturing sales rose in the September 2016 quarter, led by a rise in petroleum and coal product manufacturing, Statistics New Zealand said today.
After adjusting for seasonal effects and removing price changes, the volume of total manufacturing sales rose 2.1 percent in the September 2016 quarter, following a similar rise in the June 2016 quarter.
"This quarter's rise in petroleum and coal manufacturing sales followed a sizeable fall in the June 2016 quarter," business indicators manager Neil Kelly said. "This industry often has quite large quarterly movements and is not adjusted for seasonal effects."
Ten of the 13 manufacturing industries had sales increases in the September 2016 quarter. The largest increases were in:
petroleum and coal product manufacturing – up 8.1 percentmeat and dairy product manufacturing – up 1.6 percent, following a large rise in the June quarterchemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing – up 5.5 percent.
The trend for total manufacturing sales volume, which gives a longer-term picture of movements, is rising.
The actual volume of total manufacturing sales was up 4.8 percent on the September 2015 quarter. When price changes are included, the value of manufacturing sales was $23.3 billion in the September 2016 quarter, down $332 million (1.4 percent) from the September 2015 quarter.
Data and analysis
Economic Survey of Manufacturing: September 2016 quarter – for more data and analysis
Sistema, the iconic New Zealand-based manufacturer, marketer and distributor of plastic kitchen storage containers, today announced that it will be acquired by U.S.-based Newell Brands for $NZD660 million. The sale of Sistema to Newell Brands, a company with a market capitalisation of $USD22 billion based in Hoboken, New Jersey, signifies an exciting new era for the company and the continued employment of its more than 700 employees in New Zealand and overseas.
Established 34 years ago by founder and Managing Director Brendan Lindsay, the company has seen its brand grow into a world recognised leader in innovation with a strong heritage and global distributor network.
“Newell has the expertise and market access that will enable them to take the business to the next level and create new opportunities for the company, especially in North America,” he says.
“The growth Sistema has experienced in recent years can be attributed in a large part to the hard work and dedication of our New Zealand and overseas employees. That is why I am absolutely thrilled that Newell has agreed to keep manufacturing in New Zealand for the next 20 years at our recently opened 52,000sqm manufacturing facility at a green fields site near Auckland airport.”
Mark Tarchetti, President of Newell Brands, says Sistema has been on the company’s radar for a number of years as they watched its remarkable rise into a world leading brand.
“It is an excellent business and an extraordinary success story,” he says.
“We have previously made approaches to the company and are delighted that we have been able to reach an agreement to purchase the business. We believe there are some very exciting opportunities for the company and we plan to leverage our position as a Fortune 500 company to provide the platform for further growth for Sistema.
“The new world class manufacturing facility is a tribute the fantastic efforts and talents of Brendan and his team. The plant's level of sophisticated automation will ensure its products remain internationally competitive and will help to significantly scale the business.
For Brendan Lindsay who will step down from his position as Managing Director, the sale is the culmination of 34 years work that started in a garage in Cambridge.
“It has been an incredibly exciting, and at times challenging, journey that is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of a lot of people who work and have worked for the company. We had a vision for the company but I don’t think even we imagined we would be selling our products in more than 90 countries around the world. I look forward to watching the continued growth of the business.”
About Sistema
Sistema is a New Zealand based manufacturing company that sells a range of plastic storage containers in over 90 countries. It has offices in Australia, UK, France, Scandinavia, and USA along with an extensive worldwide distribution network. It recently opened a world class 52,000 sqm manufacturing plant in Auckland and has over 700 employees.
About Newell Brands
Newell Brands (NYSE: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Paper Mate®, Sharpie®, Dymo®, EXPO®, Parker®, Abu Garcia®, Berkley®, Shakespeare®, PENN®, Pflueger®, Marmot®, Sunbeam®, Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Baby Jogger®, NUK®, Rubbermaid®, Contigo and Yankee Candle®. For hundreds of millions of consumers, Newell Brands makes life better every day, where they live, learn, work and play.
Yachting New Zealand has selected after an in depth design process the Lancer RK5000 “Ultimate Support Boat” as their new coach boat for their development programs.
From the outset of the project it was clear that modern sailing has put even greater demand on support vessels than is currently available. Lancer Industries Ltd and Yamaha Motor New Zealand who are long term suppliers to Yachting New Zealand, have teamed up to create a RIB package that will perform to these high standard requirements.
Lancer drew on the extensive knowledge of coaches, fleet managers and experts to create three key requirements; safe sea keeping, ease of operations and ergonomics. Consistent feedback was that many existing coach boats were recreational craft adapted for coaching and were simply a compromise.
The Lancer and Yamaha package is clearly the result of a customer led design. The unique hull has a long fine bow entry which leads to fixed lift tabs on the transom. This will really assist operation as the majority of work is done at low speeds and RPM, where the 60hp four stroke Yamaha has excellent torque.
A challenge was set by a user group for ‘Clean Decks’ but with a twist, everything below deck had to have good access, and no fixed fuel tank. This has led to a clever straddle seat that opens to a locker capable of storing two Yamaha 24 litre fuel tanks. There are many benefits, weight is low and well balanced, maintenance will have excellent access and all lines or cables commonly found on the decks of coach boats are hidden
The pedestal console used on the RK5000 is a well proven model used in the last two Olympic campaigns on Yamaha powered Lancer RIBS. More ergonomic consumer led design can be found in the placement of grab handles and stash bags so equipment is easy to reach and safety is increased.
The RK5000 is finished off with Lancer’s 3T designed hypalon tubes that allow for more contour and shape to create a fuller bow. Lancer’s inflatables tubes have a legendary status of longevity and reliability which reduces the true cost of ownership.
The first RK5000 is set to be launched for the ISAF Youth Worlds on 14-18 December with a more to follow. This is a very fitting debut for a RIB designed to excel in these conditions.
08 December 2016
European manufacturers are failing to make the most of data and analytics tools to plan and segment their supply chains, according to a new report.
JDA Software Group and Warwick Manufacturing Group's (WMG) report the Supply Chain Segmentation: A Window of Opportunity for European Manufacturing found that only 18% of respondents took into account historic, present and future data in the supply chain planning process.
The report surveyed 100 manufacturing organisations across Europe to benchmark their supply chain segmentation practices.
Only 39% of respondents’ segmentation models were data-driven and 23% of organisations stated they prefer the use of “rules of thumb” to any kind of data-driven methodology.
“The survey highlights that the majority of organisations are not using dynamic or data-driven models,” said Hans-Georg Kaltenbrunner, vice president manufacturing industry strategy, EMEA at JDA.
“Indeed, more organisations are driving their supply chains forward by looking in the rear-view mirror, rather than looking at the road ahead.”
Kaltenbrunner said that as well as an over reliance on historic data, research suggests that some organisations may not have the capability to accurately navigate their supply chain along the business roadmap.
“A lack of analytics capabilities is widespread, along with a consistent end-to-end analytics approach,” he said.
This meant first movers would quickly gain a competitive advantage.
Twenty nine per cent of respondents said they implemented supply chain segmentation practices, in a top down manner – which the report said indicated that the strategic nature of segmentation is not being recognised in practice.
Global technology distribution giant, Ingram Micro, is now under the control of HNA Group, following the completion of the Chinese conglomerate’s $US6 billion acquisition of the US-based company.
The companies announced on 6 December that they had completed the transaction, seeing publicly-traded HNA Group subsidiary, Tianjin Tianhai Investment Company, take control of Ingram Micro.
The closure of the deal, worth $38.90 per share with an equity value of approximately $US6 billion, was first announced in February, and comes after a review of Ingram Micro’s finances by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
On 2 December, Ingram Micro announced that it had cleared their final hurdle to the completion of its acquisition by Tianjin Tianhai, with China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange approving the deal.
"The closing of this transaction represents a significant milestone on Ingram Micro's path to growing our business and providing a full spectrum of global technology and supply chain services to businesses around the world," Ingram Micro CEO, Alain Monié, said.
"We are delighted to move forward with this partnership with HNA Group and excited by the opportunity to accelerate the development and delivery of an even stronger value proposition for Ingram Micro's vendors and customers globally."
According to HNA Group vice chairman and CEO, Adam Tan, Ingram Micro, with its supply chain management experience and technology solutions, “exemplifies” HNA Group's strategy of investing in companies with strong positions in growing markets in the company’s core areas of focus.
“Working together, we believe there are significant opportunities to continue to expand Ingram Micro's delivery platform and portfolio of solutions offerings into high growth regions and provide customers across a wide range of industries with greater access to new market opportunities,” said Tan.
“Today marks a significant step forward in HNA Group's efforts to create a global, one-stop provider of logistics and supply chain solutions and services," he said.
While Ingram Micro will remain headquartered in Irvine, California, following the completion of the deal, and continue to be led by Monié, the completion of the transaction sees Ingram Micro cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
It is understood that, with the acquisition finalised, Ingram Micro’s chief financial officer, William Humes, is expected to leave the company, to be replaced by executive vice president of finance, Gina Mastantuono.
At the same time, the company’s executive vice president, secretary, and general counsel, Larry Boyd, is also set to step away, leaving vice president and associate general counsel, Augusto Aragone Coppola, as a replacement.
The company had previously told its associates that HNA Group had assured that the merger should have no impact on its day-to-day operations.
‘A significant part of HNA Group’s attraction to Ingram Micro is our exceptional associates, including our management teams," Ingram Micro said earlier in the year.
"HNA Group has assured us that it is committed to maintain our associates, management and operations, including Ingram Micro’s offices, warehouses and other facilities."
The company also said that it expected, “very few, if any,” Ingram Micro positions to be impacted as a result of the acquisition.
“HNA Group recognises that the assets of Ingram Micro’s business are our associates and our trusted relationships with our vendor and customer partners,” the company said.
“Ingram Micro expects to continue to operate in the same manner with our management and associate teams in place across our countries and lines of business, serving our vendor and customer partners as usual."
Likewise, the company assured its staff that the deal was unlikely to result in the closure or consolidation of Ingram Micro offices, facilities, or warehouses, and that there would be no change in how it conducts business, operationally, around the world.
The local channel community has already expressed mixed feelings about the deal, with Arrow ECS ANZ CEO, Nick Verykios, previously citing issues concerning vendors and trade in China.
“It's going to be a political issue as well," he told ARN in February. "It's going to be awesome watching all this. Who knows what's going to happen."
Meanwhile, Dicker Data CEO and chairman, David Dicker, took the long view, simply stating that it would be “very interesting to see how it plays out in the next year or so”.
Ingram Micro’s new owner, HNA Group, is a Hainan-based global conglomerate with an industrial model structured based around aviation, tourism, transportation, logistics, and financial services.
It has in excess of $90 billion in assets with significant operations in countries including China, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Turkey, Norway, France, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Ghana, Belgium and Netherlands.
Forgotten deal relied on common sense instead of currency
The advent of New Zealand’s only branded home-grown vehicle the Trekka 50 years ago was the result of a counter trade, a barter, that even today is still staggering in its simplicity. Indeed, the sheer scope of the barter even today is still unrecognised just because it was so straightforward.
New Zealand had a surplus of wool.
Czechoslovakia’s Skoda Works had a surplus of vehicles.
Therein lay the deal.
Until this moment it has remained a secret. We will now reveal how it worked out in practice.
The organisation to see the opportunity was Motor Holdings of Auckland. The company in that era decided to run the deal through an offshoot in Palmerston North known as Five Star Motors.
In those days 50 years ago Palmerston North was an important centre of the auto industry in terms of assembly and distribution.
It was now that the government was approached with the outline of the deal.
The reason that a government approval was necessary was that at this time any import of any kind at all was controlled by quota and licence.
At this time. 50 years ago, the export price of wool declined by 40%.
New Zealand's sheep population continued to rise. Available storage space everywhere was crammed with unsold wool.
But still the government sought to squelch the deal on the grounds that the barter or counter-trade was simply a device to by-pass the rigid import licencing of that era.
But Five Star motors had a trump up its sleeve which it now played carefully.
Fifty percent of the showroom floor price of the New Zealand-ised Skoda would be local input.
Moreover, it would be branded as a New Zealand product and with a New Zealand name.
It was now that the Customs Department began to give way. The Trekka had taken on a political life of its own. The department backed down. The Trekka had arrived.
The skill and patience of the Palmerston North negotiators who implemented the Trekka counter trade had much to do with Palmerston North’s presence as a swinging parliamentary seat between National and Labour.
The rest of the story is relatively well-known. The Trekka, which looked like a boxier version of the Land Rover was one of the cheapest vehicles available in a market where new car prices were high, and cash deposits of up 60 percent were mandatory.
Better still, the Trekka, a forerunner of the SUV, was available off the floor, on low deposit, making new car ownership accessible to many for the first time.
The Trekka though will be remembered as the most successful counter deal ever. Its success was in its simplicity.
The most curious thing about it was that it was so hard to repeat as New Zealand trade began to turn eastward. In spite of Asian customers being notoriously and institutionally bad payers – another topic still rarely talked about, especially departmentally—it proved a hard act to follow.
In our next revelation on the silent, and officially-ignored world of counter-trades, we will detail an example of one that did not work out and very largely because of the absence of official support.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters desk - Wednesfday 7 December 2016
Japanese IT equipment and services company, Fujitsu, has announced the launch of an IoT solution, FUJITSU Manufacturing Industry Solution VisuaLine, that visualizes the operational status of the manufacturing process based on log data of operating results collected from a factory’s equipment.
This solution collects log data from the manufacturing equipment, and visualizes the operational status for each individual product in a variety of formats, such as graphs. The users can see the portions of the process that are taking more time than usual by comparing these graphs on a daily basis, and enable them to quickly discover anomalies. This helps users in discerning the problems based on the log data, such as allowing the failing equipment to discover new places and improve the manufacturing facilities or to establish policies.
Features of VisuaLine
Private equity-owned Patties Foods, the maker of brands such as Nanna’s, Herbert Adams and Four’N Twenty pies, has bought New Zealand company Leader Products, a manufacturer of frozen convenience food products.
Patties Foods, bought by Pacific Equity Partners for $232 million in September, says the two companies are natural partners, both focused on manufacturing high quality frozen foods.
Leader, started by Tony Peterson and Richard Crabb in 1998, exports to Australia and Asia and has doubled revenue in the past five years. The product range includes meatballs, burger patties, toppas, finger foods and meal solutions under the brands Leader, Tony’s Tucka and Kauri Coast.
Peterson will continue as managing director and will maintain a stake in the combined business.
Paul Hitchcock, CEO of Patties, says the combination of Patties and Leader will provide significant growth opportunities for both companies.
“Leader is a great New Zealand success story and we are very keen to support the team in their continued growth,” he says.
“For example, we see immediate opportunities to leverage the Patties sales force in Australia to bring more of Leader’s great product range to Australian customers.”
The cost of the acquisition hasn’t been revealed. The transaction is expected to complete in early 2017 following regulatory approval.
At this year's Autodesk University (AU), which was attended by 10,000 people, Autodesk made several announcements that make its software quite attractive for manufacturing firms of all sizes. The company and its partners showcased several applications that address latest trendssuch as generative design, augmented virtual (AR) and virtual reality (VR), additive manufacturing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics. As CEO Carl Bass said, “Unless your team is collaborating well, you can’t even compete, much less win.”
Autodesk's core strategy has been to democratize design software so that smaller companies with limited resources can use them to design and deliver the latest high-quality products. Subscription-based cloud delivery fits the core strategy of making its software affordable and enables collaboration in and among teams. The company is on a trend away from desktop applications, with an emphasis on delivering applications in the cloud.
Autodesk is building a cloud portfolio for each industry that it says is complete, connected and on-demand. Its cloud-based Fusion 360 and BIM 360 are built on the Forge developer platform that will now be available through a browser in addition to native mobile applications.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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