Temperzone: Getting through unscathed

Temperzone's Les Kendall sees sales rising by 10 per cent a year. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland air conditioning and ventilation company Temperzone went through a tepid patch last year, but chief executive Les Kendall says it is back on track for 10 per cent sales growth this year.

"As for the next couple of years, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic," he says. "I'm planning and expecting 10 per cent sales growth per annum."

"To avoid being affected by a lacklustre commercial property building scene in New Zealand, we need to achieve our growth by getting more out of other markets. It just requires good application," Kendall says.

Temperzone is exporting 75 per cent of its products, with all but 5 per cent going to Australia. Asian sales are gathering momentum, including a new alliance with a company in India.

"The crisis didn't really affect us a heck of a lot," says Kendall. "The first quarter of '09 people sat on their order books waiting to see how it would pan out, and we had a bit of surplus capacity."

In the first quarter of last year the company adopted nine-day fortnights, with workers taking accumulated leave until business rallied again. The year to June 2009 was on a par with the previous year, when Temperzone had revenue of $142 million. With 59 new staff joining the Auckland plant since last August, staff numbers have grown to 373 - more than before the crisis.

"The past two years have been positive for the company," Kendall says. "We got through the crisis unscathed, while some of our competitors in Australia weren't so fortunate. That meant we've been able to increase our market share in Australia, giving us the focus to continue to develop our export markets.

"Financially, we're a very conservatively-run private company, which has enabled us to do that."

Les Kendall
CEO, Temperzone

* Your big hope?
It's more our intention, to keep developing the export markets we are already in and the new ones we're exploring, and to get more out of the Australian market.

* Your big worry?
The macroeconomic factors in Europe causing another crisis.

* What would help right now?
Getting enough suitably qualified technical people - engineers - at a good level. We take on apprentices here each year, but it's at a higher level we need experienced people. TechNZ (the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology's business investment programme) is going to help us with that.