KEY POINTS:
Can a German electronics whiz save the once-stellar Auckland satellite navigation device-maker Navman?
This is the question on the lips of 270 staff at the Northcote hi-tech company, after a poor run with former owner and American corporation Brunswick which saw staff departures and layoffs.
Jens-Thomas Pietralia is the president and chief executive of Navico, the Norwegian marine electronics giant which bought Navman's marine GPS business this year.
Navman staff are pinning their hopes on him.
On a two-day visit to Auckland this week, Pietralia said his company had big plans for Navman and had already embarked on a recruiting drive for more staff. Three positions were being advertised, he said.
Navico, which has its headquarters in Oslo, is also planning to cherry-pick some of Navman's brightest and best and move them from the North Shore to Norway.
But even more importantly, Navico plans to use New Zealand as a springboard to drive navigation device sales into Asia and particularly the lucrative Chinese market.
Added to those encouraging features is Navico's solid vote of confidence in Navman by switching some research and development work from Europe to Auckland.
"I will certainly make sure Navman finds a good home and a successful future with the Navico family," Pietralia said yesterday.
"We've just moved some of the most important R&D programmes from Europe to New Zealand. This is a navigation platform for the Navico and Simrad brands and we'll work with the Navman team in Auckland to finalise the R&D programme."
Navman founder Peter Maire this week said he was "pretty pissed off really" about Navman's fate since its sale in 2003 to Brunswick.
But Pietralia said Navico wanted to put the negativity behind it and Navman was now on a growth path.
"We're trying to end a year of uncertainty of a company put up for sale for 12 months and we're doing that via a swift integration into Navico," Pietralia said. Employing 260 people of the 280 at Navman when Brunswick sold was a vote of confidence in the team here, he said.
He also praised Kiwi ingenuity, saying it was this magical x-factor which had drawn Navico to Navman.
"The clever ways of approaching innovation and technical challenges is something that New Zealanders are particularly good at and which will help us at Navico."
Navico had revenues of US$320 million ($428 million) last year and Pietralia said the business was now on target to exceed this, particularly after the Navman acquisition.
Pietralia, 38, was appointed head of the world's biggest provider of electronics in the leisure boating market, only last September.
After graduating from the University of Ulm in Germany, he joined McKinsey & Co in Munich as part of the hi-tech leadership group. He was chief marketing officer for Siemens Mobile in 2004 before joining Navico.
Pietralia said this week's trip was his first to New Zealand and while back-to-back meetings ruled out any sightseeing, he hoped to tour more of Auckland and the country next time.
