Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd () is a major appliance manufacturer which is a subsidiary of Chinese multinational home appliance manufacturer

Haier Haier Group Corporation () is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including refrigerators, air conditioners, washin ...

. It is a multinational corporation based in

East Tāmaki East Tāmaki is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is a largely industrial area adjacent to a rapidly growing population. Prior to the 1960s it was largely a dairy farming area. A landmark is Smales Mountain which in 2010 has the remains of ...

, New Zealand. Originally an

importer An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...

of domestic

refrigerators A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

, Fisher & Paykel now holds over 420

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

and bases its identity on innovative design, particularly in the areas of usability and environmental awareness. The company's trademarked appliances include Active Smart

refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

s, AeroTech

oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...

s, DishDrawer dishwashers, Smart Drive

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...

s and Smartload top loading

dryer Dryer (or drier) may refer to: Drying equipment * Hair dryer * Hand dryer * Clothes dryer, also known as a tumble-dryer * Belt dryer * Desiccant, a substance that absorbs or adsorbs water * Grain dryer, for storage grain bins * Oil drying agent, a ...

s. The company also manufactures gas and electric cooktops. In 2004, Fisher & Paykel Appliances purchased the United States-based cookware manufacturer Dynamic Cooking Systems, and Italian cookware company Elba in 2006. Fisher & Paykel had grown into a global company operating in 50 countries and manufacturing in Thailand, China, Italy and Mexico. The company had a manufacturing base in Australia for almost 20 years and nearly 70 years in New Zealand, but stated it can no longer compete with low cost labour countries and had to close them. In 2012,

, a major Chinese appliance manufacturer, purchased over 90% of Fisher & Paykel Appliance shares.

History

Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd was listed publicly in 2001, following the separation of Fisher & Paykel Industries Ltd into

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited (FPH) is a manufacturer, designer and marketer of products and systems for use in respiratory care, acute care, and the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Based in New Zealand, their products and ...

Ltd and Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd that same year.

Fisher & Paykel Industries

Fisher & Paykel Industries Ltd was founded in 1934 in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

by Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel. The company publicly listed in 1979 with

authorised capital The authorised capital of a company sometimes referred to as the authorised share capital, registered capital or nominal capital, particularly in the United States) is the maximum amount of share capital that the company is authorised by its con ...

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New Zea ...

40 million. Initially the company was an

Crosley appliances Powel Crosley Jr. (September 18, 1886 – March 28, 1961) was an American inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur. He was also a pioneer in radio broadcasting, and owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team. In addition, Crosl ...

, Maytag and

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

products; in 1938 the company began manufacturing

Kelvinator Kelvinator was an American home appliance manufacturer and a line of domestic refrigerators that was the namesake of the company. Although as a company it is now defunct, the name still exists as a brand name owned by Electrolux AB. It takes its ...

washing machines under license. This followed the introduction of

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...

s by the

First Labour Government of New Zealand The First Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 1935 to 1949. Responsible for the realisation of a wide range of progressive social reforms during its time in office, it set the tone of New Zealand's economic an ...

. In 1956, manufacturing was moved to a purpose-built factory in Mount Wellington,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. This facility included flexible machinery manufacturing techniques developed in tandem with the

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...

suppliers, enabling Fisher & Paykel Industries to greatly increase production. In 1955, Fisher and Paykel acquired Dunedin electric oven manufacturer H. E. Shacklock Ltd, which dominated the New Zealand domestic appliance market through the era of Government protectionism. Subsequently, the Shacklock brand was gradually withdrawn from the Fisher and Paykel product range. The company began exporting within

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

and

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

around 1968. At that time the company also manufactured

cabinets A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...

sparkplug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

s and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

s. During the 1980s, the company became more focused on

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

, resulting in the development of the ECS direct drive mechanism washing machine and highly automated production lines. In 1989, the company opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Australia. The company entered the European market in 1992, and by 1994 was exporting to over 80 countries.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances

On 12 November 2001, Fisher & Paykel Industries split into Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd and

Corporation Ltd. In October 2004, Fisher & Paykel Appliances acquired Dynamic Cooking Systems Inc, a United States manufacturer and distributor of cooking appliances. Dynamic Cooking Systems was acquired for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

33 million (

49.3 million) in a debt-free state, allowing the company to leverage market presence while maintaining its quality of engineering. In June 2006, the Italian cookware business Elba was acquired from

DeLonghi De'Longhi S.p.A. () is an Italian small appliance manufacturer based in Treviso, Italy. History and trading The company was founded by the De'Longhi family in 1902 as a small industrial parts manufacturing workshop. The company incorporated in ...

for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

78 million (NZ$158 million). Elba has been since renamed as Fisher & Paykel Appliances Italy S.p.A. and exports to over 54 countries, focusing on the UK market. Fisher & Paykel makes a relatively broad range of mid to high end dishwashers. Its notable drawcard to the Fisher & Paykel brand is the DishDrawer dishwasher. Most dishwasher brands don't offer drawer-style dishwashers, so Fisher & Paykel is the leader for this niche design. In 2018, Australian customers gave Fisher & Paykel 4 out of 5 stars for overall customer satisfaction for dishwashers. Their revolutionary Smartdrive top loading washing machine was created in 1990. It allowed the washing machine to vary the wash performance depending on the load size and fabric type. It also required fewer moving parts because it didn’t require a belt or a transmission or clutch like other machines back then and today still require. This technology was later introduced to the front loader line up.

Current products

Fisher & Paykel Appliances currently manufactures

cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...

laundry Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with t ...

and whiteware appliances. The company's

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

product is the DishDrawer double drawer dishwasher which it claims washes dishes more efficiently than standard dishwashers or hand washing. The current Fisher & Paykel-branded product range includes built-in ovens, electric cooktops, dishwashers, dryers, freezers, ranges, rangehoods, refrigerators and washing machines. A large number of Fisher & Paykel products utilise

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

and

brushless DC electric motor A brushless DC electric motor (BLDC motor or BL motor), also known as an electronically commutated motor (ECM or EC motor) or synchronous DC motor, is a synchronous motor using a direct current (DC) electric power supply. It uses an electronic ...

technology from

production line A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...

equipment to improve efficiency. The company's trademarked brushless motor-based performance features include Smart Drive washing machines, SmartLoad Dryers and DishDrawer dishwashers. Microprocessor-based control systems form the basis of Active Smart refrigerators and AeroTech ovens.

References

External links

Fisher & Paykel USFisher & Paykel CAFisher & Paykel NZFisher & Paykel AUDynamic Cooking Systems
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher and Paykel Haier Home appliance manufacturers of New Zealand Manufacturing companies based in Auckland Manufacturing companies established in 1934 New Zealand brands New Zealand companies established in 1934 Home appliance manufacturers of Australia New Zealand design