By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Fisher & Paykel has had to delay their ‘gas in glass’ Luna cooktop release in Australia until after April due to a minor design change which meant re-starting the safety approval process.
Managing director and chief executive John Bongard said a slight re-design, which added an extra hole to the design so it could draw more air during cooking, meant a re-submission for approval.
“Incredibly, we’re still tied up with some approvals issues, particularly in Australia. At the moment though, our plan is to release that product [Luna] in New Zealand first, because we seem to be clearer on approvals issues there,” he said.
The New Zealand launch would probably be in April, after the company has launched their new Elba brand this month or the next, said Bongard.
“At this stage, it will depend on the marketing team’s requirements here, because we are now in the process of launching the Elba brand,” he said.
“I think what we’ll probably do is hopefully we’ll wait until the hype of the Elba launch dies down and you’ll probably see Luna launched in New Zealand probably April. I’d like it to have been a bit earlier, but we don’t want to slow down the Elba launch in preference for Luna. Seems we’ve been waiting that long for it, another month or two won’t hurt.”
He said the Australian launch would come “very soon” after the New Zealand launch, with northern hemisphere launches later this year.