Endace, the world leading Kiwi network monitoring technology company, is abandoning Asia and bringing its $5 million manufacturing business home to New Zealand.READ ALSO: Endace boosts Hamilton R&D centre from 59 to 90 staff
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Endace, the world leading Kiwi network monitoring technology company, is abandoning Asia and bringing its $5 million manufacturing business home to New Zealand.
READ ALSO: Endace boosts Hamilton R&D centre from 59 to 90 staff
A new manufacturing contract with Christchurch company GPC Electronics, to be formally announced by Prime Minister John Key later today, will create 10 jobs.
To a degree, the London-listed Endace is returning a favour to its home country: it recently received a $4.4 million government grant from Tech NZ.
Launched 15 years ago from a research project at the University of Waikato, Endace produces a range of products that monitor, measure and secure high speed networks.
For it's year ending March 31, the company broke even on $US31 million ($NZ41.7 million) revenue.
Endace founder and chairman Ian Graham (pictured) said the move to manufacture in New Zealand made good commercial sense, following a thorough investigation of options throughout the Asia Pacific region.
“Bringing our manufacturing to New Zealand means that it’s closer to our Auckland headquarters and our Hamilton product development hub. For us, this means better quality control, greater production flexibility and vastly improved communications. We’re delighted to be manufacturing here and to help prove that New Zealand can be a competitive place to build high-tech products.
“Having received a number of New Zealand government grants over the years, including a FoRST grant earlier this year, it’s great to be able to continue to bring benefits back into the New Zealand economy,” Dr. Graham says.
GPC Electronics general manager Robert Wallis said: "This contract provides a guaranteed volume of work through our Christchurch manufacturing facility and will result in additional employment opportunities at all levels, from production staff to professional engineers.
“Secondly, it supports a critical mass for the industry in Christchurch and New Zealand. This helps both GPC Electronics and the electronics manufacturing industry in New Zealand remain competitive by maintaining and developing the entire infrastructure required in a fast moving technology industry.”
Christchurch production involves highly technical manufacturing of circuit boards with as many as 1100 individual components in a board the size of your hand.
These include high value ‘programmable silicon chips’ some with as many as 1152 contact points contained within a square package the size of a postage stamp requiring placement accuracy measured in micrometers.
Endace spends more than 20% of its revenue on research and development and is one of New Zealand’s most highly awarded and successful high-tech companies.
