Story: Knowledge-based industries

Designing an entirely new type of dishwasher, the DishDrawer, helped boost export sales for the long-running New Zealand appliance firm Fisher and Paykel. American marketing executives check out the DishDrawer in 1999. In that year Fisher and Paykel split its appliance and healthcare divisions into separate companies, and now exports most of its production. Manufacturing is increasingly carried out in Asia and other countries with low labour costs. In 2012, the Chinese-based Haier Group bought Fisher and Paykel.