Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

One NZ internet customers are experiencing outages across the country.

It said the issue was under investigation.

The South Island and the lower North Island were experiencing the outages heavily, with Christchurch and Wellington listing the most outages on One NZ’s outage map.

The company acknowledged the widespread outages under one report.

“We’re aware of an issue affecting some of our cell sites and internet across the Lower North Island and the South Island. This may result in intermittent or no service for some customers in these regions.”

The company said some customers’ internet or calls were dropping out, and it had opened One NZ Satellite access to more customers in affected areas.

“We’re sorry for the disruption, and our teams are working hard to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.”

It said customers could still stay connected using WhatsApp calling, messaging, and data through its satellite service.

The website Downdetector showed a spike in outages for One.nz this morning.

The website also showed issues for Spark and 2degrees.

There were comments on the post from people around the country who said their internet had not been working – although some also reported it coming back in after 10am.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Business travellers are among those reducing their visits to regions due to Air New Zealand ditching some flights, an expert says.

More cutbacks to flights came to light on Thursday after Nelson mayor Nick Smith and Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford posted about them on social media.

In a post to his Facebook page, Nick Smith said Air New Zealand was cutting an additional 23 Nelson flights to and from Auckland, 32 to Wellington and 15 to and from Christchurch between 29 June to 26 July.

“This is the third time Nelson flights to and from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch have been axed temporarily since the war in Iran started and brings the total number of flights lost to 266 or about 12,000 seats,” Smith said in his post.

“This is disappointing news for Nelson. While it is understandable, with no concrete signs of de-escalation of the oil crisis in the Middle East, it will have an impact on the number of visitors to the region and make it more difficult for people travelling for work, to access healthcare and take holidays outside the region.”

Nelson Regional Development Agency visitor destination manager Craig Boodee told Morning Report, also agreed the cuts were a concern for the region.

“It does create hesitation for people to book travel, because they might think their flights will get cancelled. And, I understand why Air New Zealand has to make some of these cuts to save on costs, many of the tourism operators are having to do the same,” Boodee said.

“Winter is our quiet time of year, about 15 percent of our visitor spend happens over winter. We need every visitor we can get during that time.”

Boodee said it was not just people cutting back on their holidays that was impacting tourism.

“Business visitors that come on monthly sales calls, they’re spreading that out now. They’re pushing it out to about six weekly.

“That’s our bread and butter over winter. Those regular business visitors that come in, they often pay a little higher prices for accommodation, and they often get their breakfast and dinner covered.

“So, it’s critical. We need those visitors,” he said.

Boodee was worried about the long-term future of regional services.

“Forward bookings are looking good, so we need these flights to come back. We can’t let that business slip between our fingers. It’s critical we get flight availability back onto the network.”

He said some tour operators have told him they’ve had their best summer since Covid.

Higher fuel costs to blame

In a statement, Air New Zealand confirmed it had made a number of changes to its schedule in July, in response to increased fuel costs.

“These consolidations affect around 2 percent of passengers due to travel across this period. We’ve targeted the consolidations to minimise disruption and to ensure that the vast majority of impacted customers can still travel on the same day.”

The airline said customers whose updated flight didn’t suit their plans could choose a refund or credit.

Flights to Tauranga have also been cut back, said Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford who also posted on his social media about the change.

“From 29 June to 26 July they will be removing 27 return flights on the Tauranga-Auckland route, 12 return flights on the Tauranga-Wellington route, and five return flights on the Tauranga-Christchurch route,” Rutherford posted.

Subsidies a possibility

The minister in charge of aviation says subsidies for regional airlines will have to be considered as more flights to regional airports are cut.

Regional airlines including Air Chathams, Sounds Air and Island Air have drawn down loans from the Government – a measure that was already underway before the war in the Middle East.

James Meager told Nine to Noon subsidies for airlines would not be his first choice, but will have to be considered.

He says advice from officials on how to support the sector is expected in a couple of weeks.

Cuts to flights a global issue

Simon Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent told on Morning Report, flight cutbacks could become much worse later in the year, if the Iran war situation remained unchanged.

“By September, I am going to predict airlines in Europe will be cancelling flights, not just in the tens of thousands, possibly in the hundreds of thousands, keeping planes on the ground, because, with the very high price of fuel, it won’t be worth flying them,” he said.

“This is all combined with a reduction in demand, simply because people in Europe are thinking, well, I’m not really sure what’s going on in the world. I don’t want to commit. This is all very bad news for the airlines.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Volatile oil prices have helped clean energy KiwiSaver funds shine in the early months of this year.

Morningstar has released its latest KiwiSaver survey, which shows the first quarter of this year was a tough one for KiwiSaver funds, but over a year they are still performing strongly.

Conservative funds had a peer group return of -1 percent in the quarter but returned 4.5 percent in the year. ASB had the strongest return over the year, up 6.5 percent.

Default funds were down 2.7 percent in the quarter and up 8.8 percent in a year. Fisher Funds was the strongest default fund over a year, at 10.1 percent.

Moderate funds were down 1.8 percent in the quarter but up 5.4 percent in the year. ASB was top over one year, at 8.1 percent.

Balanced funds were down 2.6 percent over three months but up 8.5 percent over a year. Pie was first, up 12.3 percent over a year.

Growth funds were down 3.5 percent in the quarter and up 9 percent in a year. Pie was up 15.5 percent, in first place.

Aggressive funds were down 4 percent in the quarter and up 12.1 percent over 12 months. The strongest aggressive result was Kernel’s High Growth, up 17.6 percent. That fund was also top over three years and three months.

Over a 10-year period aggressive funds have the highest return, at 8.9 percent per annum.

But Milford has the highest growth over 10 years in its active growth fund, at 9.8 percent a year, a return that was equal to the top aggressive fund, Booster.

Koura KiwiSaver founder Rupert Carlyon said the report did not capture the rebound at the end of the March quarter.

“The S&P 500 returned to a new record last week, which would have dealt with most of it. The only stock market that’s not doing well is actually New Zealand.”

He said markets around the world had taken the view that conflict in Iran did not really matter.

“To a certain extent, Jerome Powell said that on Friday morning as well, when he gave a speech when the US Fed announced it would keep rates on hold.

“He said that the US consumer is still strong. We would have expected consumer spending to weaken, but we’ve seen no evidence of that… Oil prices are high, but they’re only as high as where they were back in 2022.

“We’re finding alternative supplies. It’s kind of working. And we know Trump is desperately looking for an off-ramp.”

He said growth in AI was also helping.

“The AI story has got so much stronger in the last six to 12 weeks following the launch of Claude Code.”

He said a global recession had been forecast four times since 2020 and had never happened.

“So that’s my very long way of saying, do we expect it to be another double-digit year? Probably not. But is there a reason why markets are about to fall another 10, 20 percent? Not really.”

The top fund over a year was Kernel’s Global Clean Energy Fund with 87.9 percent. Over three months that fund was up 16.8 percent. Koura’s was up 59.3 percent over a year.

Carlyon said that had been something that people had written off in the past.

“It was one of the few positive funds over the last quarter. And the reason for that’s pretty simple, right?

“Clean energy goes into data centres, a lot of semiconductors, a lot of that technology base and rare earth metals and all of that.”

Kernel founder Dean Anderson was celebrating Kernel’s strong results in the latest update.

“That’s the pay-off of a data-led, low-fee, index-based approach showing up in the numbers KiwiSaver’s actually care about. Fair to say, Kernel is shaking things up and we’re very proud of the outcomes we’ve been providing investors.”

He said rising oil prices had helped the clean energy fund.

“Every spike in fossil fuel prices strengthens the economic case for solar, wind and storage. [It’s] worth noting it’s a thematic fund and a small slice of what we do, less than 1 percent of Kernel’s [funds under management]. Most of our KiwiSaver members sit in the diversified funds, which is exactly how it should be, despite the fact Kernel does offer the ability to fully personalise your KiwiSaver with us.”

Koura’s bitcoin fund was bottom of the table, down 21.8 percent in the quarter and 18.9 percent over a year. Its results tend to be very volatile as the currency moves in value.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Property values lifted slightly in April, says data firm Cotality, but any strength in the market will likely be challenged in the coming months.

According to Cotality’s data, the national median value of $809,101 was 0.1 percent up in the month and 0.6 higher than in January, but still 16.8 percent below the January 2022 peak of $977,643.

Dunedin rose by 0.8 percent in April, Christchurch and Tauranga both recorded a 0.4 percent increase, while Hamilton’s figure was 0.3 percent. Wellington and Auckland both recorded 0.1 percent falls.

Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said April’s small national value lift was a slight surprise.

“Given everything that’s been going on… these figures now relate to April, you’d think maybe there would have been a slightly softer result.

“0.1 percent is still fairly small, so whether it’s up or down, I suppose, is neither here nor there. It’s still within error margins, I’d say, so maybe a little bit surprised, but bigger picture, the housing market is still fairly flat.

“There’s been a little bit of growth to start the year, but we’ve seen sales volumes still quite soft. We know that economic indicators are going to weaken, if not already weakening, as well as mortgage rates going up.

“Those things will be restrictive for the housing market. You couldn’t rule out a slight rise in May potentially, but I think it’s more likely that, as we get through May, June, July, the longer this uncertainty goes on, the more the chance these small house price increases we’ve seen actually flatten out and possibly even go into reverse.

“It looks like we’re just set for another sluggish little period for the house sales and house prices, even if house prices have risen a bit to start the year.”

He said similar patterns were recorded in 2024 and 2025, when small upturns at the beginning of the year went into reverse.

“With Iran-related uncertainty currently very high, it would hardly be a surprise to see that pattern repeat in the next 3-6 months either.

“The bottom line is that the housing market broadly remains in a holding pattern, with buyers enjoying current conditions – or at least those that are secure in their jobs.”

He said, if interest rates continued to rise in response to inflation this year, it could have a bigger effect.

“We’ve seen the very strong experience, certainly post-Covid, that house prices and interest rates move in opposite directions.

“We saw, when interest rates fell sharply after Covid, house prices spiked and then we saw the opposite happen.

“The experience in the last 18 months to two years is that interest rates have come down again and house prices haven’t really reacted. That is a little bit of an anomaly, but during that period, we’ve also had a really weak economy.

“You’d probably still put a lot of weight on interest rates, but they don’t operate in a vacuum.”

He said job security was an important factor.

“I think that’s been the hindrance lately… mortgage rates have come down, but house prices have still stayed flat.

“Mortgage rates are now going up again, so you would think that would be a challenge for house prices, but in the meantime, we’ve simply got a continuation of that economic uncertainty, which – if anything – has been heightened in the last couple of months.”

Higher mortgage rates would also make it harder for new borrowers, he said.

First-home buyers have been a strong presence in the market in recent years.

He said many existing borrowers had been rolling off onto lower rates for a while, but that was often no longer the case.

“Those mortgage rates have probably passed through the system now, as existing borrowers have repriced. Potentially, now, we’re looking at slight increases.

“At the moment, the two-year rate seems to be very popular, but we probably are at a wee bit of a tipping point, where that influence of mortgage rate falls passing through the system has come into an end.”

Davidson said, while Auckland was flat overall, there was variability within the city. Papakura and North Shore both recorded some price growth, while Waitakere was weaker.

“The data remains patchy and the bigger picture is that values across the board are still lower than a year ago, with only North Shore’s decline from the peak currently sitting at less than 20 percent,” he said.

“The improvement in Auckland’s housing affordability may set the scene for a pick-up in value growth in the medium-term, but for now, it remains a purchaser’s market and first-home buyers, alongside smaller investors, continue to enjoy conditions.”

He said Wellington was among the weakest areas in the country. Upper Hutt was down 0.3 percent in the month.

Davidson said that was helping first-home buyers, who were more than 35 percent of the market.

“This apparent window of opportunity may not be there forever, but with economic and election uncertainty looking likely to linger for a while yet, Wellington’s property values may not move much this year at least.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A massive new complex of 297 apartments is the latest build-to-rent development to be completed in Auckland, and one of the country’s largest.

Economists say the model is taking off with developers across the country, who see more reliable income from renters than buyers.

Judith Faithfull, 76, is one of the first tenants at Reiputa Apartments in Mount Wellington, the latest in a series of build-to-rent complexes by Kiwisaver provider Simplicity.

She said what motivated her to move was the promise of a long-term lease.

“Being a person of a certain age too, it’s good to have the security of long-term rental,” she said.

“I rather optimistically signed up for 10 years, but just to give myself that security, I’ve been in situations where I haven’t had that security with renting.”

Faithfull’s home was one of the now 507 rental apartments owned by Simplicity, and founder Sam Stubbs said another 1200 were under construction.

Stubbs said build-to-rent, where one developer handled everything from construction to property management, made a lot of sense as a Kiwisaver asset.

“First of all is obviously people pay their rent, so there’s reliability of income, but also because we buy the land, we build it ourselves, and then we have our own staff, there’s a lot of development profit in there,” he said.

“So to give you an example, this building will have cost $154 million and it will value up at around about $214 million.”

Stubbs had ambitions for Simplicity to build, own and rent 10,000 homes across New Zealand.

He was not alone, developers around the country were eyeing build-to-rent as a new frontier for the property market.

Queenstown-based independent economist Benje Patterson said as the cost of buying became unattainable, investors were seeing growth in rentals.

“The Queenstown housing market is New Zealand’s most unaffordable. The typical house in Queenstown costs approaching $2 million,” Patterson said.

“So purchasing homes in Queenstown is out of reach of most households. Many people are going to be looking at the rental market.”

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said build-to-rent provided a new option for investors.

“In terms of professional investors, it’s been concentrated around commercial or industrial property if they’re looking at having a property asset there, and [build-to-rent] adds a residential property investment option there at scale, and the returns that investors are able to get there are seen to be reasonably stable.”

He said the scale and long-term nature of the investment also gave tenants more security.

“Because the properties are being held for the long-term by the investor, there is more security of tenure around those for the tenants, which is something that has been held up as quite a criticism of the New Zealand rental market,” Kiernan said.

As a lifelong renter, Judith Faithfull had noticed a shift in the market as more people viewed renting as a long-term option.

“I think we still maybe have that mindset, or they did when I was younger, have a mindset of, ‘this is just temporary until we buy our home’. But more and more now people possibly can’t afford to buy their homes, or maybe they don’t want to,” she said.

A build-to-rent complex also appealed to Faithfull because everything was managed by a single entity.

“They’re your landlord, your maintenance man, your gardeners, it’s a one stop shop basically. I find that’s very helpful, rather than dealing with three or four different people,” she said.

But wealth inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke said there would always be demand for home ownership.

“The biggest need in New Zealand is not for rental accommodation. When Renters United asks people ‘do you want to be renting, or would you rather be an owner-occupier?’, a lot of people, something like half, will say that they’d rather be an owner-occupier.”

He said build-to-rent seemed like a good way to provide tenants with security, but would not be enough to solve the country’s housing crisis.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An Otago vineyard-owner says a proposed gold mine in the Dunstan Hills could ruin the region’s reputation for the best pinot noir in the world, inflicting “terminal damage” on his business.

Appearing before a fast-track panel considering Australian company Santana Minerals’ application to build a large open-cast mine near Cromwell, Canyon Vineyard owner Hayden Johnston said viticulture and mining were fundamentally incompatible.

Santana Minerals argued the two industries could co-exist, and said on Thursday it was committed to ongoing engagement with the local community.

But Johnston told the seven-person panel the Bendigo-Ophir project would irreparably damage the landscape and kill customer demand.

“It’s the scale of it, it’s the nature of it, it’s the permanence, it’s the intergenerational effects and the toxicity that remains forever that makes this completely inappropriate,” he said.

Johnston said he was proud to put the Bendigo label on his wines but the area’s reputation for world class pinot noir was at risk of being lost.

He told the panel he sought expert advice from a Griffith University tourism and marketing professor who advised that every part of his wine production and sales, events, wine tourism and accommodation business would suffer “irreparable and ultimately terminal damage”.

“In other words, coexistence would reduce customer demand and ultimately kill my business,” Johnston said.

“It’ll completely blow the wind out of my sails. It would be a depressing future to know that it’s going to get harder and harder.”

Santana Minerals has previously said the project would employ hundreds of people and be worth $6 billion in revenue and more than $1b in taxes and royalties for New Zealand.

Some local residents have backed the mine and have formed a Santana Mine Supporters group.

The fast-track panel also heard from resident Holger Reinecke who lived in a historic woolshed restored as a home in 2002.

He said he was worried about the company’s disaster preparedness plans.

“I’d just like to note my astonishment as to how little consideration has been given to the seismic risks residing in the Dunstan mountains and further afield emanating from the Alpine Fault,” he said.

Reinecke said he and his wife decided to sell their property for personal reasons last year but buyers were wary of its proximity to the mine site.

“While some buyers are willing to consider properties further from the proposed access route, properties situated directly on or on the access route are encountering strong resistance,” he said.

The Trevathan family, who live under the proposed tailings dam, expressed concern about a catastrophic failure.

The family’s solicitor Bridget Irving told the panel that Santana Minerals’ application lacked detail and was not decision-ready.

“The location of this mine proposal is not in a remote, unpopulated, expansive or flat area as might be found, for example, in Australia or South Africa,” she said.

“People do live downstream and loss of life is foreseeable if the worst was to happen.”

Santana Minerals has previously said its application reflected years of detailed technical and environmental work and the fast-track process would not reduce scrutiny or standards.

Company lawyer Joshua Leckie was asked by panel chair Matthew Muir KC whether residents should be considered “collateral damage”.

“No, I don’t think they’re to be regarded as collateral damage. Their views are still relevant to your considerations,” Leckie said.

Leckie said Santana Minerals was committed to engaging with the mine’s neighbours and it would consider the suggestion of compensation.

The company’s management plans were sufficient to deal with the impacts, including a catastrophic event, but that would be something to explore further through the fast-track process of expert conferencing this month, Leckie said.

“There is an appropriate level of baseline information in the technical assessments and the evidence that’s been filed at this time,” he said.

Leckie said issues of mana whenua engagement were a key priority for the company as its application progressed.

The fast-track panel was expected to make a final decision on the mine in October.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

More companies went into liquidation in March 2026 than in any other March since 2015, new data shows.

Centrix’s latest update showed 3023 liquidations in the year to March.

In the month, there were 286 company liquidations and 308 insolvencies.

Construction remained the leading industry for company liquidations, with 768 firms liquidated in the past year, although this represented just 0.9 percent of all registered construction companies.

Hospitality was the second-largest contributor, recording 399 liquidations – an increase of 49 percent compared with the previous year and 1.3 percent of all hospitality businesses.

Inland Revenue has been a significant driver of insolvencies as it chased unpaid tax debt.

It has started to report businesses’ debt to credit agencies, so would-be lenders have more visibility of a company’s financial situation. Inland Revenue is usually ranked first among creditors, if a business goes into liquidation.

Centrix managing director Keith McLaughlin said the data was starting to be registered with Centrix, but the full picture was not yet reflected.

Business credit defaults were down 16 percent year-on-year in Centrix’s data. He said that could indicate that the liquidation rate could improve in future.

“It really is a tidy-up from the historical past,” he said. “When we look at arrears in the business sector, they are down.

“The trend is positive and, if arrears are lower now than they have been, that will ultimately flow through to liquidation, which is the back end of the process.

“What we’re trying to achieve is a little bit more transparency around IRD debt, because you can do a credit report and the credit book comes up saying there’s no arrears, but if there is tax debt there, it’s probably a false impression

“I think, until there’s total transparency around IRD debts, there is always that cloud hanging over you saying, ‘Well, is there a debt out there to the IRD that we’re not aware of?’.

“That creates a domino effect, because if somebody owes money to the Inland Revenue, if they ultimately go through, then that creates a domino impact on the market, where they don’t pay their creditors and consequently they get into strife, so it’s quite important to have full transparency on any outstanding liabilities.”

Manufacturing sector improves

Manufacturing showed improvement, with liquidations down 5 percent.

McDonald Vague insolvency practitioner Keaton Pronk said the March quarter was the busiest in the past 10-15 years for winding up applications and corporate insolvency appointments.

“It looks like this trend will continue into April, with winding up applications above past Aprils and insolvency appointments tracking that way too.”

Centrix said the “other services” sector, which included more than 26,000 registered companies, was an area of concern.

Over the past year, 174 companies across the sector were placed into liquidation, up from 124 the previous year – a 40 percent year-on-year increase.

The sharpest pressure remained in automotive repair and maintenance, where 74 companies were liquidated over the past 12 months, compared with 27 a year earlier. This reflected continuing cost pressure, softer demand and weaker discretionary spending conditions.

Centrix said overall consumer credit demand was still above last year’s level, but inquiry volumes were starting to ease. Activity was holding up in home loans, vehicle lending and personal loans.

Consumer arrears down

The news was better for households.

Consumer arrears fell again in March to their lowest level since September 2023, while mortgage arrears also moved lower.

There were still 95,000 consumers more than 90 days behind on payments and pressure remained more visible in unsecured lending.

Kawerau had the highest arrears rate at 17.55 percent, followed by Wairoa at 17.52 percent and Ōpōtiki at 16.56 percent.

Personal loan arrears were still elevated and personal loan hardship cases remained well above year-ago levels.

There are currently 13,400 accounts reported in financial hardship, down 300 from the previous month. The broader hardship trend, which had been rising since late 2022, has continued to ease in recent months.

“We are seeing a softer demand for credit, particularly in the discretionary spending areas, and I think that’s a sign that households continue to keep a tight control over their budgets and, rather than go into arrears on their payments, they’ll cut back on discretionary spending,” McLaughlin said.

Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) arrears improved and were lower than those of personal loans.

In 2025, 245,000 consumers opened their first credit product. Of those, 32 percent did so using BNPL products.

McLaughlin said that had been a noticeable shift away from other forms of credit as a first experience.

“It used to be your telephone or your rent, but it’s now buy-now-pay-later, so it’s a very soft entry into the credit market, because it’s generally a lower amount and for a shorter period of time.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Business confidence has slumped into negative territory, as firms face weaker activity and rising cost pressures, ANZ says.

The bank’s latest Business Outlook survey shows headline confidence dropped from a net 32.5 percent in March to minus 10.6 percent in April.

Chief economist Sharon Zollner said buried in the data was the detail that responses were weaker in late March than early April, suggesting businesses may be adapting to the shock – but it was still a “precipitous fall either way.”

She said the result confirms businesses have turned decidedly more cautious about the economic outlook.

Forward-looking indicators weakened broadly, with firms’ expected own activity – a key measure of future demand – falling from 39.3 to 19.6, while employment, investment and export intentions all declined.

Profit expectations also swung into negative territory, highlighting the strain firms are under as costs rise while demand softens.

By contrast, reported activity over the past year was relatively steady at a net 16.9 percent, suggesting the hit to sentiment has yet to fully translate into weaker output.

However, ANZ noted the environment remains challenging, with uncertainty likely to weigh on hiring and investment decisions.

“It’s a response to uncertainty to maybe defer risky decisions – and investing or employing someone are both risky decisions to make,” Zollner said.

She singled out the construction sector, where higher interest rates, rising costs and potential material shortages had left it facing a “perfect storm.”

“Some consents might be quietly going on the shelf until this uncertainty is resolved.”

At the same time, inflation pressures picked up again in the survey.

Inflation expectations for the year ahead rose from 3.1 percent to 3.8 percent, their highest level since early 2024, while cost expectations surged to their highest levels since 2023.

ANZ described the environment as a significant cost shock for businesses, but firms appear reluctant – or unable – to fully pass those higher costs on, increasing pressure on margins.

Pricing intentions were little changed during the month, and expected price increases over the next three months remained broadly steady, while wage expectations eased slightly.

Zollner said that combination would offer some reassurance to the Reserve Bank that higher inflation may not become entrenched – although she acknowledged it was “bad news for workers, who are facing cost pressures of their own as fuel prices rise.”

Zollner said the survey had not altered ANZ’s forecast for the Reserve Bank to begin raising interest rates in July, even as firms and households continue to face rising costs.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Gym chain City Fitness has battled claims in court it deceived customers with misleading membership prices.

The fitness giant faced 16 charges under the Fair Trading Act .

The Commerce Commission claimed City Fitness’ advertised membership prices were misleading.

It said the gym chain did not include a compulsory transaction fee, which the commission said should have been included in the advertised price.

Labelling the 3 percent fee as a “transaction fee” which was not related to the costs for processing membership fee payments was also misleading, the commission said.

In the Auckland District Court on Thursday, the lawyer for the commission, Jacob Barry, said nearly 200,000 people had been affected by the costs over 16 months.

He described it as a cynical marketing ploy.

“As best as I can tell, none of the money has returned to the customers.”

He said City Fitness had been deceptive.

“City Fitness obviously saw there was a competitive benefit in pursuing it this way,” Barry said.

“It gets the benefit of the market, being able to sell its memberships with that attractive looking number, but it’s doing that in a false way and in my submission, in a consciously false way.”

The fee generated just under $1.6 million during that period, which Barry said was illegitimately obtained.

City Fitness continued to advertise the membership price despite being alerted the Commerce Commission was investigating, which Barry said was reckless.

Representing City Fitness was James Every-Palmer KC, who said the gym chain had not been deceptive, and that by the time customers were paying, they would have known about the fee.

“It arose out of good intentions from City Fitness to keep prices as low as possible, however, they fell down through a flawed implementation,” he said.

“But on the other hand, there’s no evidence that a single consumer has suffered actual harm, had ended up signing up without knowing about the fee, or would’ve signed up if the transaction fee had had a different label.”

Every-Palmer said the problem arose through carelessness not through an intention to deceive.

He said there was no evidence of deliberate deceit.

“I’ve heard today that the commission says the most serious thing here is that general cost recovery, including the cost of processing transactions, was recovered through a transaction fee, that that dwarfs the unobtainable price problem,” Every-Palmer said.

“But there’s simply no evidence that that was a deliberate attempt to mislead people, that that was, in some way, meant to make them think that that was their actually cost of transacting, and there’s simply no evidence that it made any difference to anyone…”

Judge David Clark reserved his decision.

At the time the gym franchise was charged, the commission’s competition, fair trading, and credit general manager Vanessa Horne said a business advertising cheaper than reality prices could give them an unfair advantage over competitors.

“There’s no excuse for false or misleading advertising,” she said.

“This investigation and the charges we have filed should send a clear message – when we see prices that we think are misleading, the commission will act so that businesses are held to account.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A new national wool auction, closing a chapter for Hawke’s Bay, was off to a subdued but promising start in Christchurch this week.

The hammer went down on more than 9000 wool bales sourced from across both North and South Islands on Thursday, earning $6.6 million across two auctions held by brokers PGG Wrightson (PGG) and farmer cooperative Wools of New Zealand.

More than 4800 bales were sold by PGG making $3.4m, while Wools of New Zealand sold more than 4300 for $3.2m.

PGG held its final Napier auction in mid-April after 140 years there, as the rural firm sought to consolidate and reduce duplication across the auction system. Wools of New Zealand followed suit.

General manager of wool for PGG Rachel Shearer said the support team of 20 in Napier – whom she described in January as “disappointed” by the decision – was expanding to help manage the new Ōtautahi auction.

“The decision to consolidate to Christchurch has been really difficult,” she said.

“It’s been a long time coming and we’ve been hearing from buyers for many years, as well as the wider industry, that there’s a lot of duplication happening across the industry.

“Part of our strategy is to work with others across the wool industry to help consolidate, to take out that duplication in the industry, to create efficiencies.”

Small, raw samples of North Island-sourced wool will now be shipped down to Ōtautahi for buyers to experience in the wool store, instead of the full bales, and scouring and storage will continue in Napier.

Shearer said growers either entered wool supply contracts, sold it directly or through auctions.

“Growers have options and we’re delighted to be able to offer them multiple options,” she said.

“We believe in the open cry system; it’s fast, it’s reliable, and buyers like it. But likewise, growers are able to promptly receive money for that.”

South Island auctioneer Dave Burridge said the firm wanted to create an “industry-good” hub in Christchurch, possibly with more players involved.

“There’s a lot of collaboration has gone on with other brokers to be able to come together in one centre,” he said.

“And there will be other support and options for other brokers to come in eventually, if they wish to be able to support the auction system.

“Because ultimately at the end of the day, the auction still sets the defaulting prices in New Zealand.”

Nearing the end of this current wool season, there were fewer bales were on offer in Ōtautahi than at this year’s earlier North and South Island sales combined. But there was good buyer turn-out and low pass-in rates.

Local buyers and agents represented companies from all over the world, including key markets China, Australia, and Europe.

Among others, the top buyers across Thursday’s sales were longstanding merchant Segard Masurel and the consolidated J S Brooksbank and NZ Wool Services International, New Zealand’s largest wool exporter.

Burridge said most of the bench were based in Christchurch, but there were other exporters scattered around the country too.

“What happens generally is that the New Zealand-based wool exporters will represent overseas principles of their inquiry, their demand and their purchasing books,” he said.

“But we do have a number of, in recent years, a lot of interest now coming from Australian major wool exporting houses, sending their representatives here to Christchurch, mainly through the fine wool season.

“They’ve also expressed interest now into the cross-bred sector, which we see .. as hosting a hub for all buyers to make it accessible.”

Burridge said prices were well above the levels of recent years, closer to the more recent pre-Covid 19 era peak around 2018, making it much more meaningful for growers.

Prices appeared to have turned a corner after difficult periods when the cost of shearing the sheep outweighed returns.

Burridge said prices were helped in part by improved sentiment in China recently.

“It’s mainly been a supply driven, but it’s also come at a time where China has revitalised.

“They’ve invested a lot of new plant and machinery in China to process wool as the textile hub of the world.”

He said there was promise for New Zealand wool with the signing of the new India-New Zealand free trade agreement just this month.

He added that the current global uncertainty around oil could favour the wool industry, over petroleum-based synthetic fibres.

Demand for traditional wool mediums like carpet, textiles and clothing were holding steady, but there were emerging opportunities in more niche products like woollen air filters, wool-derived pigments and woollen band aids, helping prices.

Cross industry platform Fusca indicated its strong wool indicator was at $5.54 per kilogram on Thursday, marking a ten-year high. Though some classes reached much higher levels in Napier and Ōtautahi recently.

Prices have been helped in part by steady domestic and international demand for wool, in the face of the declining national flock.

The 23 million or so sheep in New Zealand in the year to June, according to StatsNZ, was now a third off the peak of more than 70 million in the 1980s.

In future, a couple of cents per kilo may be shaved off the sheet further to go towards an industry wool levy, that was being considered again.

In 2003, farmers dissatisfied with the then New Zealand Wool Board voted out its governance and hence the levy, and attempts at a levy revival since have been unsuccessful.

Organisers expected the quantities at national auctions to increase as more wool came off farm in the warmer months, with a boom expected in July and August, particularly for merino.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand