Businesses working around Covid-19
The impacts of Covid-19 (coronavirus) are being felt by several South Canterbury businesses as they adapt to changing demand for services and products.
As the viral respiratory disease continues to spread across China, the world’s second largest economy, several businesses with operations in South Canterbury linked to meat, seafood, logs and dairy products along with the tourism and international education sectors were all being affected in some way.
However, Timaru-based Starwood, which makes wooden beech skewers, icecream and hot dog sticks, tongue depressors and toothpicks, is one company bucking the trend as its attract new clients to its made-in-New Zealand brand.
‘‘It’s impressed them. Anyone ... persevering with Chinesebought wooden products were directly affected and are now realising the benefits of buying from a legitimate New Zealand manufacturer,’’ owner Allan Booth said. ‘‘We’ve picked up a new, big client from Australia, probably the second biggest in Australia so the impact will be ongoing business for the product produced in Timaru.’’
Booth said they had increased production to cope with the increased demand.
However, South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wendy Smith said for other companies in situations such as this, it was important for them to plan ahead.
Many industries were in a ‘‘watching and waiting stage with the medium to long-term impacts yet to be fully unravelled’’ but some sectors had already been more affected than others, Smith said.
‘‘The coronavirus is having an immediate impact on businesses and organisations that service the tourism industry and international education. This has been felt by operators in the Mackenzie District, with an estimated 20 per cent reduction in business from China in some areas.’’
While no businesses had yet contacted the chamber with concerns, Smith said the chamber had ‘‘gone the other way and distributed information and updates’’ to businesses in the region.
‘‘It is critical to use one source of information from various government departments, and NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) is one good source of information.
Sanford general manager of corporate communications Fiona
MacMillan said the only impact for them in Timaru had been extra pressure on cold storage facilities as other sectors halted or slowed exports to China.
‘‘But our supply chain team has done a great job of finding the facilities we need, so as things stand, we are managing well.
‘‘Also there has been no change in demand for our seafood processed in Timaru.’’
Silver Fern Farms head of communications and sustainability, Justin Courtney said the company’s Pareora plant team had adapted its market mix to accommodate the situation and chief executive Simon Limmer said during the past three weeks a team had been meeting daily to understand the latest events. ‘‘We have adapted ... to maintain optimal production flows. This is a dynamic environment, which changes very quickly.’’
Alliance Group livestock and shareholder services general manager Danny Hailes said while restaurants and markets remained closed across China there was a reduced demand for red meat.
‘‘The supply chain for food has also been affected by port congestion and Government measures to limit the spread of the disease.
‘‘However, we continue to export product to China. We are also working hard to drive the speed of our sales and divert product . . . there has been no impact on processing at our Pukeuri and Smithfield plants.’’
Barker’s of Geraldine corporate commercial director Nicky Donkers said while there had been minimal impact on its staff and production, packaging operations had been affected.
Donkers said they did keep ‘‘reasonable stock holdings’’ in reserve but there was some concern if delays were prolonged.
Fonterra managing director co-operative affairs Mike Cronin said its sales team was working with customers to ‘‘understand how coronavirus is impacting their businesses, which will give us an idea of how it impacts ours’’.