Business spies on the rise


stuff.co.nz

Industrial espionage is on the rise in New Zealand as companies look for ways to gain advantage over competitors in a tight economy, say employment fraud experts.

In a recent case, an overseas retailer planning to move into the New Zealand market was found to have placed a spy in a rival operation.

Paragon managing director Ron McQuilter, who investigated the case, says the spy worked in a senior role for the rival retailer for six months. He would not name the companies involved.

The staff member took the company's intellectual property, pricing structures, records and strategies.

''This guy had systematically taken everything from the company and set up almost a duplicate business. [The overseas retailer] would have come in with arguably an inferior product, but it would have looked the same and clients might or might not have known.''

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