Product Development and Innovation in New Zealand

New Zealand has a wide range of product development and innovation businesses that are considered small to medium sized enterprises. Many of these businesses expand into global markets due to the small market size we have here in New Zealand and often these businesses are niche. The types of products designed and produced (manufacturing may happen here or abroad) range from apparel and consumer products to industrial products and tech.

The New Zealand market is a unique one in a number of aspects. Products are often developed to suit this unique market, because there are no existing products out there. Later these products often find niche markets internationally also.

New Zealand is well recognised for its leading-edge innovation through events such as the America’s cup where it show-cases the latest in marine design.

New Zealand businesses as a whole tend to be lean, partly due to their size, but also the countries culture that favours flat structures and broad skill sets. This favours investment in Research and Development.
Working in Product Development in New Zealand is possible in most major cities, and businesses employ industrial designers, graphic designers and design and production/industrialisation engineers. New Zealand does not produce enough engineers each year to meet the jobs available and so many people working in Product Development and Innovation have come to New Zealand from other countries.

New Zealand’s location means that shipping large products to international markets can be expensive and slow. For high value industrial products this is not considered to be an issue. For consumer products however, small products do better, or companies choose to manufacture nearer to their key market of sales.

Australia and New Zealand produce a number of product standards jointly and often have reciprocal agreements around product regulations so this is often the first market of export for New Zealand product developers. Europe (+ Great Britian) and/or North America are often the next on the list and this can require some product changes to meet regulatory requirements in these markets which are usually more stringent that those in New Zealand.