GOOD BUSINESS MEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 515, 19 November 1928, Page 1

GOOD BUSINESS MEN

TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALANDERS SWEDISH MAGNATE ARRIVES HEAD OF ELECTROLUX “New Zealanders are good business men —hard workers and reliable.’* This splendid recommendation comes from Mr. A. L. Wenner-Gren, founder and chairman of directors of Electrolux, Ltd., a firm which has separate organisations in 48 countries ef the world. Mr. Wenner-Gren arrived from Sydney this morning on the Aorangi. He had hoped to stay in the Dominion, but liis business will not allow him to do so, and he is hurrying on to America. Speaking of New Zealanders and their business ability, Mr. Wenner-Gren said this morning that some of his firm’s best men came from the Dominion. Mr. W. B. Bennett, formerly of Wellington, was now manager for America for Electrolux; Mr. W. N. &ievers, who was born in the Wairarapa, is sales manager for America; and Mr. H. Jackson, formerly of Christchurch, is the firm’s general manager in Australia. In addition to these men there are several others with the firm in London and other parts of the world. INVENTORS BUSY “Our people are always inventing something new,” said Mr. Wenner-Gren in the course of an interview this morning. “We have laboratories in which inventors are working all the time and one of the next articles we hope to put on the world market is a water softener, which I believe you require in New Zealand.” Mr. Wenner-Gren is classed among the world’s most wealthy men. He lives in Stockholm and Paris. Sweden was his birthplace. The firm’s largest factory is at Luton, near London, find it is this factory which supplies most of the machines far New Zealand. Apart from his own business interests, Mr. Wenner-Gren is keenly interested in trade relations between Sweden and New Zealand and Australia. He said this morning that although B large number of Swedish firms have established branches in Anstralia, there ere still many Swedish articles which could be developed into an important market in Australia. 1 o obtain results worth while, it was necessary to establish personal connect ons, as business of any importance could hardly be developed by correspondence only. Swedish manufacturers will therefore send out their own xepresentatives in order to establish the I light relationships. TRADE WITH SWEDEN A great deal depended on the man Vbo was selected as manager to take cnarge of an overseas branch, and no > should be made to establish euch a branch unless the right man were available. A healthy development of business connections must be based on buying hs well as selling, and the exports from Australia and New Zealand to Sweden must receive as much attention as exports from Sweden to this side of the World. , *^ r i * Wenner-Gren thought that there ► nould be more direct shipping to Sweaen - At present much of the produce from Australia and New Zealand transhipped via other countries, na this, he considered, was quite un- _ He did not think there was umcient trade for a direct line of ships, ut so many vessels a year should go direct to Sweden. use< ? a considerable quany of Australian wool and wheat, and fj,®**® should be a wonderful market for v u ’ £ ldes and other primary products, i t Zea!and products would also find ea dy market in Sweden if the necesS * nCSS re * a ** ons cou ld be estab- * *y r Wenner-Gren is making his firs£ r of this side of the world, and has nf » IVea a . most favourable impression j-i ustralia. He stated that several of lnt . s P rod ucts, notably the Electrocleaner, refrigerator, floor polish - la a! a strong position on the an< * were steadily gaining 4. r n<l - .This year the firm increased Kti ftftA C A n pi^ from 6,000,000 crow ns to «0 000,000, when most of the Electrointf» en^f r P^i ses combined and merged international industrial con-