Fisher & Paykel has today confirmed the departure of Andrew Paykel. A descendant of company co-founder Maurice Paykel, Andrew Paykel had been involved with the New Zealand appliance brand for much of his working life, with a strong focus on expanding its presence in overseas markets.
Paykel’s departure follows a period of upheaval at the iconic company, which has also seen longstanding executive Mike Church and Peter Russell depart and a sales team restructure to integrate F&P and Haier into one unit.
Most of the changes at Fisher & Paykel have stemmed from Chinese brand Haier takeover of the company in 2012. Prior to that, Haier had been a cornerstone shareholder, having purchased just under 20 per cent of the company in 2009. Andrew Paykel was instrumental in this marriage of two fairly disparate companies, and he used the experience of launching F&P into China when guiding the brand’s tentative steps into India.
Here is how Andrew Paykel describes his contribution to Fisher & Paykel:
With experience spanning 18 years in a global sales and manufacturing…I have held various positions throughout the company in New Zealand, Australia, USA and Asia. During that time I have been responsible for opening and expanding new distribution channels and markets; factory relocations within Asia; coupled with developing staff and strategic company structure.
Sources have told Appliance Retailer that there will be no direct replacement for Paykel and that his functions are being absorbed by existing New Zealand-based staff.
Further reading: Andrew Paykel proud of his F&P achievements and looking forward to opening new business