Keep it simple and cheap to compete

Reporter·

19 Nov, 2001 11:18 PM2 mins to read

Even the biggest agri-tech firms support outside research agencies. SIMON COLLINS reports.

Tru-test has "outgrown" New Zealand's scientific research agencies - but still wants to know that they are there. The Mt Wellington agri-tech firm is one of the country's biggest earners, exporting 80 per cent of its annual sales of around $125 million.

It sells 95 per cent of the world's milk meters, is the global leader in animal weighing equipment and number two in electric fence devices after fellow NZ company Gallaghers.

Research and development manager Tim Otley says the company has used Industrial Research and universities, but now its 36-strong research and development team have become world experts in their fields.

"In milk metering, the expertise is something that is quite limited - we'd have at least half the people in the world that really know much about it."

The company has also had Technology NZ grants in the past, but has grown too big to meet their criteria.

Yet he is happy to keep paying taxes to keep the country's universities and research institutes going.

"I think there are certain technology expertise areas that should be kept broad. Within the physics and electronics area there are optics, optic electronics and radio frequency including microwave, " he says.

"It is important to maintain core competency there. What tends to happen is that there are pockets of it, and identifying it and tapping into it can be a challenge. That is a role that research institutes and universities can play."

His only reservation is that researchers need to design simple, cheap products. "It's something we say to our new graduates: don't go and use the best cutting-edge technology. We have to build to a budget, otherwise we won't be able to compete on the world market."

Mr Otley says Tru-Test is "in a fairly rapid growth phase".

Tru-Test's 500 staff also make products for other companies, including an electronic instrument for the Auckland University medical spin-off Neuronz.

The company is owned by managing director Des Scott, other senior staff and investors. ANZ Private Equity has a 10 per cent stake, and other stakes are held by the Accident Compensation Corporation and Wellington's Rangatira.