Ma¯ori business rises to challenge

Ma¯ori businesses showcase strength in the face of adversity says Lee Gray

The continued growth of Ma¯ori business, despite the challenges of Covid-19, highlights the resilience and value it adds to Aotearoa’s economy.

The entities on the 2020 Deloitte Top 10 Ma¯ori Business Index collectively represent over $7.1 billion in assets.

Waikato Tainui, ranked second on the 2020 Deloitte Top 10 Ma¯ori Index with over $1.4 billion in assets, has played a significant role in the community over the course of this year. They partnered with the Government to run Covid-19 testing centres in Hamilton and surrounding areas, including rural communities, providing additional capacity to testing services. Nga¯ti Porou, ranked tenth on the index, also established testing centres including in some of New Zealand’s remotest communities, ensuring everyone had access to a test who needed one.

This is just a glimpse of the outstanding response from iwi and the Ma¯ori business community to support communities throughout Aotearoa.

Critically, Ma¯ori business also helped ensure ongoing confidence in supply chains and food security through the lockdown. As investors and providers of significant infrastructure and owners of $13 billion in primary sector assets (Source: Ma¯ori Economy Investors Guide 2017), many of these businesses kept New Zealand primary products available and getting to where they were needed.

However, it is important to acknowledge those Ma¯ori businesses which took a significant hit as a result of Covid-19. Like all of the tourism sector, Nga¯i Tahu tourism operations had its international visitors disappear overnight and many others saw a reduction in the asset value of their businesses.

Despite these unmitigated challenges, the underlying strength of these businesses has shone through highlighting their resilience and the ability to rise to the challenge which confronted them.

In this difficult year, it is particularly encouraging to see two new entries on the 2020 Deloitte Top 10 Ma¯ori Index — Lake Taupo¯ Forest Trust, ranked fifth, and Wakatu¯ Incorporation, in at number eight. Placement on the index highlights the maturity these businesses have reached and their visibility within the market.

Wakatu¯ holds a diverse portfolio of assets, valued at over $300 million, with 70 per cent focused in the land and water space.

It also has a food and beverage business as well as a customerfocused health and wellbeing offering, businesses we can only expect to continue to have strong growth.

Lake Taupo¯ Forest Trust demonstrated the most significant growth, with a 21.9 per cent increase in asset value compared with the prior year.

They hold 32,000 hectares of land with 23,000 hectares of that being plantation forest. A significant number of people from the Tu¯rangi community are employed on their whenua, and with the Crown lease due to end in July 2021, this will result in 100 per cent of the forestry income returning to the trust, creating additional flow-on benefits for the local community.

In a year full of challenge and uncertainty, Ma¯ori business have showcased their strength not only from a financial perspective but also in their commitment to communities across Aotearoa.

The Government describes the recovery from Covid-19 as an economic recovery, and Ma¯ori business are well-placed to support them in this process, providing not just economic benefits but holistic benefits to the nation as a whole.

Ma¯ori business also helped ensure ongoing confidence in supply chains and food security through the lockdown.

Lee Gray