All manufacturing staff, and support staff, were on site, while the rest worked from home.
From February the company added about 600 people to the workforce in New Zealand and 500 to its Mexico operation.
"We organised ourselves into work streams that were relevant to what we were trying to do," Gradon says.
"Step one was to put people into make it safe for people, which allowed us to maintain its maintain it manufacturing ability," he said.
Gradon said the company's "organisational pivot" allowed it to export to countries as Covid-19 made its way around the world, starting with China, then Europe, and then the United States.
The company organised "rapid response teams" for different processes.
"It was an organisational pivot because we were all working within those work streams."
This year it will spend $160m in capex - $120m of that on new manufacturing equipment - and more than double the previous year's.
That expenditure "pulls forward" the company's planned capex for the next three or four years.
Since the outbreak, Gradon said he and staff had been working "every waking hour".
It meant the company had had to double and in some cases triple its output, depending on the product.
That meant pulling in two or three times the amount of supplies at time when much of the world was in lockdown.
The company, New Zealand's biggest in terms of market capitalisation, this week reported a 37 per cent increase in net profit to $287.3m in the year to March, and has forecast $325m to $340m for the current year.
In normal times, F&P Healthcare pays 2.75 per cent of its tax paid profit to employees.
In recognition of the extra effort required for Covid-19, the Gradon said company doubled that for the second half of the year the March financial year.
"It was all well-earned."
'Conservative'
For shareholder Fisher Funds, F&P Healthcare is its biggest position.
Fisher Funds' senior portfolio manager Sam Dickie thinks the company's earnings guidance for 2021 may prove conservative.
"Their total addressable market for that Optiflow product is now at $50m (from $30m) and most importantly there will be a step change in the exposure and acceptance of the efficacy of the product during Covid-19," he says.
"Not only is that total addressable market a lot bigger, is likely to be penetrated a lot faster in the medium term," he said.
"It's been a great proving ground in a crisis," he said.
F&P Healthcare, the country's biggest stock by market cap, has been on a tear over the last year, trading today at another record high.
Edgar, Gough buy into House of Travel
Sir Eion Edgar
One of the country's biggest travel agents has secured new investors in a private equity funding round as the Covid-19 pandemic causes wide-ranging effects on the industry.
House of Travel has attracted two South Island investment firms - Sinclair Investment Group, the family investment vehicle of Sir Eion Edgar, and Tailorspace Capital, an investment firm founded by Ben Gough.
Both bought into the travel company on June 17, according to Companies Office records, with Sinclair taking a 17.65 per cent stake and Tailorspace 11.76 per cent.
The capital raise sees House of Travel chairman and majority shareholder Chris Paulsen move down to 63.85 per cent from a previous 88 per cent holding.
"The significant investment of equity capital allows House of Travel to strengthen its balance sheet and liquidity position to trade through the uncertainty created by COVID-19 and to then take advantage of the significant opportunities that will arise once conditions normalise," Paulsen said in a statement.
"We have faced numerous external challenges over the years but the reality confronting the travel industry today is that COVID-19 will likely continue to impact sales and earnings for at least the next 18 months."
The Edgar family's Sinclair Investments has made numerous long term investments in businesses in New Zealand and elsewhere, including in health and education and in technology infrastructure such as the Hawaiki submarine cable system.
Tailorspace is active in commercial property as well as direct investments such as a 50-50 joint venture in Alvarium Investments.
