Story: Industrial design

A woman worker assembles wall sockets at PDL Industries' Christchurch factory in 1967 – the year a new factory was built in Malaysia. Owner Robertson Stewart had begun at the company in 1945 as a plastics design engineer. He remained committed to good product design when he bought the firm in 1955, and built it into a leading global brand. France-based Schneider Electric acquired the PDL group in 2001. Product development, and some manufacturing, has remained in New Zealand.