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In Appliance Retailer’s December 2013 issue, we profiled Mike Church and chartered the modern history of Fisher & Paykel. Here for the first time online is that story. This article is a companion piece to: Mike Church steps down after 31 years at F&P, replaced by Mark Pacey

Fisher & Paykel’s Haier calling is to remain relevant and independent

After a long time based near the Sydney Olympic Stadium in Homebush, Fisher & Paykel and its Chinese owner Haier moved to shiny new offices in North Ryde earlier this year.

The new digs are located at Eden Park Drive — Auckland’s premier rugby ground is also called Eden Park — it’s a nice reminder of Fisher & Paykel’s antipodean heritage. Even after all these years, an ownership change and upheaval, Fisher & Paykel cannot completely escape its provincialism.

It is now been one year since Haier finalised its purchase of Fisher & Paykel and unlisted the 79-year-old brand from the New Zealand and Australian securities exchanges. The last 12 months have witnessed significant changes to Fisher & Paykel — many of them the opposite of what was expected from Chinese ownership.

It was telling that at Fisher & Paykel’s first product unveiling after the takeover, the company focused on high-end cooking appliance — The Companion Range — which shares considerable style notes with Miele’s Generation 6000 range.

Consumers have seen a lot of this range throughout 2013 because Fisher & Paykel has invested heavily in an above the line advertising campaign and an exhaustive national tour with the Good Food & Wine Show.

So if the stereotype of Chinese ownership is low prices and not enough marketing, Haier and Fisher & Paykel are swimming against this rising tide.

Mike Church has been living the highs and lows of Fisher & Paykel for 30 years and is currently the chief operating officer.

In a sign of how things change, when Church joined F&P as the sales manager for the South Island, the company also distributed the Panasonic brand via an agency agreement. He worked his way up Shaky Isles to the company’s Auckland head office, before moving to Australia to oversee sales and marketing.

Church compares Fisher & Paykel’s difficult recent history to being in a pit. Faced with a perfect storm of low consumer confidence, a global financial meltdown, the high Australian and New Zealand dollars and a depressed housing market, Fisher & Paykel receded into the pit. Few companies were as vulnerable to these forces as F&P, due to its localised manufacturing operations.

By the time Haier purchased its cornerstone stake in 2010, the banks effectively owned Fisher & Paykel, constricting its ability to invest in the necessary product development to stay on-trend in a saturated market.

Church is proud of Fisher & Paykel has achieved since that first launch of The Companion Range. Between the F&P brand and Haier, the pair have created a clearly defined dual brand strategy, and the long term goal is for Fisher & Paykel to be “the number one premium brand globally”, Church said, with Hair becoming a leading whitegoods mid-tier brand in Australia and New Zealand.

“The Haier Corporation is fully supportive of this strategy and of Fisher & Paykel operating as a separate entity within the Haier umbrella,” Church said.

“After ‘the pit’, the investment in our products has been significant and we are seeing the benefits of that, with the success so far of our 10-kilogram washers, junior French Door Refrigerators and the new Front Loader and Condenser dryer offer.”

A third brand under the big umbrella is Elba, which is primarily cooking appliances sold through the hardware channel, while a fourth is DCS Outdoor Grills, a tight range of beautiful and seemingly indestructible American-style barbecues sold pro forma.

In order to keep attractive and saleable products flowing down the pipeline, Church has brought on more than 100 new engineers over the past year, with a charge to design appliances with a “huge emphasis on quality”.

There will also be a focus on relationships with retail customers and how Fisher & Paykel is presented in store. Church said there has been a “very strong investment” in a program called ‘Sales Force Excellence’, which is designed to upskill retail floor staff.

One of the criticisms you often hear regarding is publicly listed companies is too much short-termism. With F&P off the market it is refreshing to see such long term thinking about this much-loved brand.