Maurice Paykel

Maurice Paykel, co-founder of leading manufacturer Fisher & Paykel, closes a chapter in New Zealand's industrial development that began in 1934.

That was the year two young men in their early 20s, Paykel and (later Sir) Woolf Fisher founded their company to import Crosley refrigerators, Maytag washing machines and Pilot mantle radios. In those depressed days, not one household in 100 had a refrigerator, and coppers filled with water heated by a fire beneath were used for washing clothes.

But that was the year, the legend goes, that the secretary-engineer of the Ashburton Power Board, Mr H.G. Kemp, told Woolf Fisher, who was visiting looking for orders, that refrigerators would come to be essential. Especially in Ashburton, he added, where in mid-summer the nor-wester made the housewife's life miserable. Fisher & Paykel began assembling refrigerators and washing machines in 1939, and during World War II supplied these items to American forces in the Pacific.

After the war there was a steady expansion into other products such as vacuum cleaners and, in 1956, rotary clothes driers designed and patented by the company, just one of many benefits to flow from the company's keen attitude to research and development.

During the times when Paykel and his rather more flamboyant partner began making progress with their family-owned private company, the words "Made in New Zealand" on a product were not often regarded as an assurance of quality. But by 1972 then Prime Minister Sir John Marshall was describing Fisher & Paykel as a "model of efficient, economical and competitive operation".

Paykel, in 1976 when the company employed about 4500 people and was already exporting 20 per cent of its output to 42 countries (but mainly Australia), spoke out against export subsidies, which were rife in those days.

"In our opinion we must seek to export at a profit in our own right and not depend overmuch on government export incentives," he said. "They are a virtual necessity in getting started with a product in a particular market, but once the product is known it must stand on its own feet."

The ambition for the company's exports was a high-quality product that gave little trouble, helping its competitiveness at home and abroad. Fisher & Paykel also looked carefully at cost increases, being reluctant to accept a cost increase and pass it on.

And Paykel was cautious about the popular doctrine of using local materials in New Zealand manufacture, supporting it "only to the point that it was economic to do so". When the company started a new product, the policy was to start off by importing the more difficult components.

Both founding partners frequently paid tribute to the high quality of the people who came to work for them. People have mattered at Fisher & Paykel. And the owners believed they were lucky to have chosen such a growth industry. Paykel thought 25 years ago that in 10 years the dishwasher would probably be another household essential.

Other observers have pointed to two men of considerable acumen and a company that survived as a private entity for so long because its leaders drew no dividend for many years, ploughing back the profits. Paykel has been described as a caring person, always adhering to high standards.

He was a generous benefactor to medical research and was at one time a chairman of the Medical Research Council. He was also chairman of the Inventions Development Authority, deputy chairman of the Laura Fergusson Trust and director of a number of companies.

Outside interests included bloodstock breeding, racing and golf.

Maurice Paykel was born in Auckland and educated at Auckland Grammar School. He was married to the late Phyllis Patricia Paykel, and for the last 26 years to Nessie.

Sir Woolf Fisher was his brother-in-law, marrying sister Joyce Paykel.