Warner Cowin
Supply chain issues are a common theme as chief executives set out the challenges their businesses face. By Melanie Carroll.
New Zealand has held up better than many could have hoped for a year ago, with Covid-19 sparing many industries just as it cuts through others. However, the lingering effects of the pandemic overseas and the difficulties of uneven growth pose problems for many businesses.
Five chief executives set out the biggest hurdles they face right now, and what they think the future holds.
Warner Cowin
What is one of the main challenges facing your industry over the coming year, and how do you plan to manage it?
The biggest issue we have is around resourcing, having adequate people to support and deliver those projects. But it extends, particularly for our customers, to the supply chain as well.
We’re also concerned about inflation. It’s really difficult to get cost certainty at the moment, and what that means for some of our government clients is the budgets they initially set around some of the projects they wish to do are just not adequate for us to deliver what they want.
We can’t compromise on quality in terms of the people we recruit, so it does mean that we might have to be selective around some of the work opportunities that we do chase and be really focused around looking after our staff and caring for them.
How big a problem is Covid-19 for your business right now, and what impact do you think it will be having in a year’s time?
The biggest problem for us from Covid19 is having the confidence to embark back into Australia. Most of our staff are parents, and as we’ve seen with Victoria, it isn’t wise for a small business like ours . . . to send them across to Australia to engage with some of our customers if there is some potential, even slight, that they could get stuck there.
A lot of the aspirations we had around growth into Australia have now become more organic, as opposed to being very deliberate and proactive by going out there and visiting our customers. What we’ve really focused on is that our core beachhead, which is the New Zealand market, is solid.
What is one thing the Government can do now to improve the trading and/or operating environment for your business?
As small business owners, what we crave is consistency and certainty. Because there’s nothing worse, when you’re living in a world where you are trying to plan, to have things around employment legislation or tax or whatever constantly changing. It’s better to change quick and hard, so we can be prepared.
Mark Peterson
What is one of the main challenges facing your industry over the coming year, and how do you plan to manage it?
We see more opportunity than challenge, but the reality is that all businesses and investors are facing an environment with a lot of uncertainty, including the prospect of rising interest rates and increasing inflation. NZX is working to make companies aware of the opportunity to raise different forms of capital – equity or debt – which then enables these companies to set the right capital structure to match their opportunities and align to the environment they operate.
On the flip side, there are many investors, both retail and institutional, who are willing and looking for a wider range of investment opportunities to support these companies.
How big a problem is Covid-19 for your business right now, and what impact do you think it will have in a year’s time? Post-Covid, there is a sharper focus on planning for major uncertainty and unforeseen events – ready access to capital has never been more important, including for growth. Covid has accelerated investors’ interest and engagement in our markets across different forms of investments and asset classes, with record levels of participation (retail and institutional) and growth across all segments.
We expect to see these trends extend over the coming year, as we continue to develop the listed market to support the growth of companies, the resilience of our country and broaden investment choices, both within KiwiSaver and more generally.
What is one thing the Government can do now to improve the trading and or operating environment for your business?
The biggest opportunity is to make better use of our public markets and New Zealand investors as an avenue to
What is one of the main challenges facing your industry over the coming year, and how do you plan to manage it? Everything is different right now – from the way we communicate to our partners and retailers around the world, to the extended lead times on basic supplies and ingredients.
But our biggest challenge? International freight.
We have been incredibly lucky compared to many other businesses, as we have managed to hold firm during the pandemic and support our partners through it too, but simply managing logistics is incredibly difficult and the forecast is that this won’t improve for many, many months to come.