HP Business Class: Lewis Gradon from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare

In January, while most of the world was just keeping a watching eye on the Covid situation in Wuhan, a Kiwi company was kicking into action.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare boss Lewis Gradon could see what was coming. He says because of the nature of his business, it is "semi-prepared" for a pandemic at all times. He knew Fisher & Paykel Healthcare would play a huge role looking after the world's Covid patients.

"If you can cast your mind back to then, it was a very scary thought. Even scarier for us, in that two of the primary respiratory therapies used to treat these Covid patients; ventilators and nasal high-flow therapy; we're 70-80 per cent of the world's supply. We were thinking 'boy, a lot of treating these patients is going to fall on us providing the equipment'."

The first thing the company did was start selling the 12-14 weeks of stock it was holding, while bringing in more people and more shifts to keep making the equipment required. But that wasn't as simple as it sounds.

"As a growth business, we're almost always sitting in a half-empty building or we've got a building almost completed. In January we had just completed our second manufacturing building in Mexico.

"So we expedited getting manufacturing equipment into that. And our fourth building here in Auckland was due to be completed in May, so we started installing manufacturing equipment in that building before it was even completed."

He estimates the company hired around 1500 people since January, across its New Zealand and Mexico sites.

Gradon says the whole team felt a huge sense of responsibility. "We felt like this is not about business or culture or aspirations; this is a responsibility to the world to get those products out there. We cannot screw this up and we're not going to screw this up."

And even with a vaccine on the way, Gradon says they're not letting up now. "We're going to increase our manufacturing capacity until thing stabilises. We think it's the right thing to do. We're going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best."

If you want to listen to more of the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare journey, Lewis Gradon's episode of HP Business Class is here.