Kōrero: Factory industries

This worker at the Fisher & Paykel Carlaw Park Lane factory is putting together a refrigerator in the early 1950s. By 1949 Fisher & Paykel produced 600 washing machines, 500 refrigerators and 700 vacuum cleaners each month, and was struggling to keep pace with orders from retailers. In the 1950s the company began releasing products it had designed itself. The first, in 1956, was a pressurised clothes dryer, followed in 1957 by a dual-temperature refrigerator with freezer compartment.

Having outgrown their factory at Carlaw Park Lane, new 48,000-square-foot (4,417-square-metre), purpose-built premises was opened in Mt Wellington in 1956. The factory opened with 60 staff. Within four years, aided by new product launches and a network of over 200 dealers throughout New Zealand exclusively marketing Fisher & Paykel products, it had expanded to a staff of 600.