Wellington, Nov 27 NZPA - The launch of its products at Sears Hometown stores in the United States in sales following Thanksgiving Day is a big event for Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd.

The New Zealand appliance manufacturer today reported a first-half net loss of $82.4 million, but predicted an improved second half that will produce full-year normalised net profit in a range of $16m to $23m.

The company's share price was down 6c at 59c in afternoon trading.

North American revenue was down 30.7 percent as the US economy tanked and sales to a key customer Lowe's were down as much as 90 percent due to F&P's "unwillingness to hit falling price points".

That could change with the new relationship with Sears Holdings Corp. Longer-term the company said its new Chinese partner and cornerstone shareholder Haier has aspirations to grab 30 percent of the super luxury market in China.

The relationship with Sears kicks off on one the busiest shopping days in the US. The Friday after Thanksgiving Day is known as Black Friday. Stores hold big sales and the traditional Christmas shopping season begins.

F&P has been selling its discount Elba brand through Sears Outlet stores and has now signed a deal to roll out Fisher & Paykel branded products at 944 Sears Hometown stores.

"We're rolling out to the whole 944," said acting chief executive Stuart Broadhurst.

"We are talking about a limited product line up at the start, predominantly laundry based," he said.

"There's a launch tomorrow in the Hometown stores for the Thanksgiving sales, which will co-incide with the launch of the Fisher & Paykel brand product into the Sears Hometown stores.

"Really we need to get a feel for how those sales go. We need to wait a couple of months to see the ongoing volumes that it will achieve."

The company said its normalised loss after tax was $847,000 for the six months to the end of September compared to a profit of $22.4m a year earlier. Revenue from ordinary activities was down 16.3 percent to $584m.

The full-year net result after tax and abnormals was forecast to be a loss of about $58m to $65m.

As a consequence of F&P's under performance in North America, a one-off charge of $55.6m after-tax was made for asset impairments and fair value write downs at the first-half.

Other one-off costs of $26m after tax were incurred, substantially due to the completion of a global manufacturing strategy, staff retrenchment and debt restructuring costs, net of a gain on the sale of the company's East Tamaki property of $2m after tax.

The group had a solid start to the second half. Appliances' earnings were close to forecast in October and sales volumes in November were expected to finish in line with forecast.

No dividend was declared, compared to 5c a year earlier. The company shut down its washing machine production line in Clyde, Ohio, this week and in future will produce washing machines for the US market in Thailand, where it is cheaper to manufacture.