Spending drop eats into profits
Retail spending is down in Woodville and a high-profile cheesecake shop could leave town as the closure of the Manawatu Gorge road continues to bite.
But spending is up in other towns in the Tararua District, according to Paymark figures.
‘‘Maybe motorists are deciding to stop off in Dannevirke or Eketahuna to fuel up and get something to eat, since they’re going around Woodville,’’ Tararua District Council strategy and development manager Peter Wimsett said.
Figures supplied to the council show $924,186 was spent on the Paymark network in Woodville in June, down 4.7 per cent on June 2016. But in the same period, Dannevirke was up 11 per cent to $6.5 million, Eketahuna was up 30 per cent to $208,000, and Pahiatua’s spending rose 8 per cent to $2.3m.
Paymark processes more than three-quarters of the electronic transactions in New Zealand.
Wimsett said the figures backed up what businesspeople have said about Woodville’s struggles. But on an unexpected positive note, it looked like the money lost wasn’t leaving the district entirely, he said.
Yummy Mummy’s Cheesecakes has been in Woodville for 10 years, benefiting from traffic that flowed between Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay.
But with the state highway through the gorge closed indefinitely, a new more stable alternative more than three years away and no sign of a Government aid package for Woodville, it seems the business will have to leave.
The shop lost $10,000 last month and has had to cut staff.
Yummy Mummy’s owner Sera Williams said the business would likely have to move to a nearby town, or over the ranges to Palmerston North. That would allow staff to keep their jobs, with a reasonable commute.
The spending drop in Woodville was a lot smaller than she expected, however.
The store got 80 per cent of its revenue from out-of-town visitors, and despite the support of Woodville residents, it was still struggling.
‘‘We have an amazing product, so we know we can survive somewhere else, but not in Woodville, unfortunately.’’
Williams said many other businesses also relied heavily on travellers, and she suspected if spending at supermarkets and dairies was filtered out, the drop would be much more drastic.
Weekly traffic averages from the NZ Transport Agency showed Woodville’s traffic count picked up during the school holidays.
In the first week of the holidays, 66 per cent of the 14,750 vehicles that came over the ranges travelled through Woodville, and that rose to 74 per cent in the second week.
But the week after school started it fell back to 57 per cent.
The council brought in a temporary speed limit of 70kmh this week on a route that bypasses Woodville.
Tararua District Council chief executive Blair King said there had been a significant increase in traffic along that route since the gorge road closed.
The increased traffic made the route riskier and had caused wear and tear to the road, he said.