F&P Appliances missing from grant list

Stuart Broadhurst, chief executive of Fisher and Paykel Appliances. Photo / Paul Estcourt

While 26 companies were awarded $92 million in research and development funding last week, New Zealand's largest technology manufacturer was notably absent from the list.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was not eligible for the Technology Development Grant programme because its R&D spending was not a large enough proportion of its revenue, said company spokesman Matt Orr.

One industry insider said the fact that F&P Appliances missed out suggested there should not be blanket eligibility criteria across technology sectors.

Companies awarded funding included medical device manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which will receive a maximum of $7.2 million over the next three years, and high-tech crystal maker Rakon, set to get up to $7.08 million.

Firms were required to have spent at least 5 per cent of revenue on R&D in the past three years. F&P Appliances spent just over 1 per cent of its $3.8 billion revenue on R&D.

With sales of $1.16 billion in its last financial year, the firm topped the Technology Investment Network report on New Zealand's top 100 technology companies.

According to the report, the average R&D spending of appliance firms was 2 per cent, while healthcare companies tended to spend 8 per cent and "telco solutions" providers 22 per cent.

Report publisher Greg Shanahan said the amount F&P Appliances spent on R&D was not an indication of its desire to be innovative but more a reflection of available capital.

He said different technology sectors and firms could be "judged on their merits" rather than having one set of eligibility criteria for the entire scheme.