New Zealand product manufacturer and supplier Key Industries marks a milestone anniversary in its company’s history.
In 2000, Frank Visser left a corporate career, bought a small chemical company, and set up in a borrowed carport on Auckland’s North Shore with his wife Celia by his side. His office had three separate computers for email, accounting and internet, and a dot-matrix printer that had to be turned off during phone calls. Coupled with his old Holden Commodore, Frank was in business.
Despite the humble beginnings, his vision was clear: to build a company that combined commercial strength with family values and high-quality products. Today, with multiple family members active in the business, Key Industries stands as both a successful enterprise and a proud family legacy, supplying innovative products across horticulture, agriculture, conservation, and professional pest management.
Key Industries has built its reputation by stepping into spaces larger multinationals considered too small or uneconomic. When Dow AgroSciences, Mr Visser’s former employer, withdrew a key pest control product from New Zealand in the early 2000s, he saw an opportunity. Working with New Zealand chemist Mark Linton, they developed Keyban, an organophosphate insecticide, which was the first step in establishing Renovo Technologies as a local formulation and manufacturing company.
Over the years, Key Industries has either worked with Renovo to develop its own solutions, tailored to New Zealand’s unique conditions, or partnered with quality international brands to bring proven products into the market. By combining local development with global partnerships, the company has consistently delivered practical, effective solutions and earned a reputation for ‘punching above its weight’.
A defining feature of Key Industries is its insistence on products that are tested, proven, and designed for New Zealand conditions. Rather than relying on generic imports, the company invests in adapting and validating products, so they perform effectively in local climates, soils, and ecosystems. This gives growers, contractors, professional pest managers, and conservation specialists confidence that products will deliver consistent results where they are needed most.
Examples include Madex (which protects fruit crops against codling moth while preserving beneficial insects), Key Strepto (a bactericide tool for managing PSA in kiwifruit, one of the country’s most valuable export crops) and Biff Ant (used as part of the Argentine ant eradication program on Kawau Island).
Family has always been central to Key Industries. Frank and Celia Visser have involved their children in the business from the early days, and today five members of the family are directly involved. Mr Visser’s son Andre joined in 2016 and is now general manager, leading expansion across agrichemicals, horticulture, pest control and conservation in New Zealand and the Pacific.
“We’ve always moved quickly to meet industry needs,” says Andre Visser. “From developing alternatives when products are pulled from the market, to introducing more sustainable tools, we focus on practical solutions that work in New Zealand conditions.”
As Key Industries celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, the focus is firmly on the future.
“When we started, it was all or nothing,” said Frank Visser. “Now it’s about making sure the next generation has the tools they need, whether that’s for a vineyard, a dairy farm, or a predator control programme.”
The company plans to continue expanding its biological product range, deepen conservation work, and strengthen partnerships with growers, farmers and contractors to tackle industry challenges head-on.
