Not all gloom for region’s businesses
A fifth of Coromandel businesses who responded to an economic survey say they expect to increase staff numbers by five employees over the next six months.
The online survey by regional economic development agency Te Waka was held during August.
When asked on a scale of 1-10 how confident they are about the future success of their business — 10 being high confidence and 1 being not confident — the average confidence score for Coromandel was 6.1, for Hauraki it was 7.7.
Just 14 per cent of Coromandel businesses are forecasting that sales for the second half of 2020 will be more than 50 per cent lower than the same time last year.
In Hauraki, for forecast sales compared to July to December 2019, 21 per cent of businesses expected no change, 17 per cent anticipated higher sales, and 4 per cent significantly higher sales.
Some 65 per cent don’t expect to change the number of full-time employees over the next six months.
Another 20 per cent of businesses said they expected to increase fulltime employees by up to five people.
“I’m proud of how tenacious our businesses and people are as they continue to overcome the challenges life throws at them. We are optimistic and resilient,” Thames-Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie said. “You can see this reflected in the data and how many businesses have moved into developing the digital paradigm and more online offerings of their products and services.”
Toby Adams, Mayor of Hauraki District Council, thanked those who
took part in the survey. “It’s given us some really useful insights into how our business communities are faring in these challenging times and where there might be a need for more support. Overall, it’s heartening to see business confidence is still quite high in our district and we’ll continue to work with Te Waka to develop programmes and help where we can.”
Digital enablement and marketing planning ranked highest in the type of support needed by Hauraki businesses, at 42 per cent and 29 per cent of areas requiring support.
The greatest challenges were Covid-19, a declining market, wage rates/cost of staff, weather-related challenges and recruiting issues.
“Winter is always our quiet season, and we anticipate domestic tourism activity, which makes up a significant share of our market, to pick up heading into summer,” Mayor Goudie said.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters was hosted at the Kōpū Station Hotel as the TCDC thanked the Government for the $8.2 million Provincial Growth Fund grant to build the Kōpū Business and Marine Servicing Precinct.
The funding will go towards planning and construction of a boat ramp and a floating pontoon that will provide all-tide access for vessels, including large mussel barges and working boats.
Survey results for the wider Waikato also show, by and large, Waikato businesses expect their sales revenue in the second half of 2020 to be below 2019 levels, though by a far lower margin than was seen between March and May this year.
Over the next six months, 28 per cent of Waikato businesses expect to hire staff, with only 11 per cent expecting to reduce staff numbers. This trend is more evident in businesses with more than 11 full-time staff, with 39 per cent of these expecting to hire and 15 per cent requiring fewer staff within the next six months.
Russ Rimmington, Waikato Regional Council chairman, said: “Waikato looks like a better place to be than most others, and a decent number of organisations are looking to take on workers. But there seems to be a mismatch between the skills of those available for work and those that job-rich businesses need. There
is a clear need for our education and training organisations to step up.”
Free websites by Wintec students
Head of Partnerships at Rocketspark, Jason Tiller, says his business will continue to supply an award-winning website builder and work with Wintec students to offer free websites to support startups and businesses affected by Covid-19 restrictions.
“Every business needs a website and the students can design a bespoke e-commerce website for a local business, for free.”
Contact Ehsan.yaeghoobi@wintec.ac.nz