Skip to main content

Kōrero: Factory industries

Last off the line

Image
Last off the line

Fifteen years of colour television assembly ended at Philips’ Naenae factory in June 1988. Reduced tariffs meant that locally assembled televisions were no longer competitive. While production manager Bob Toes sat on the last set off the line, some of the 66 workers whose jobs were ending cheered him on.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1988/2431/9A

by Martin Hunter

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Ian Hunter, Factory industries – Inflation and deregulation, 1970s to 2000s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/25597/last-off-the-line (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Ian Hunter, i tāngia i te 1 March 2010.