Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

A developer taking over the site of an iconic Wellington fruit shop has unveiled his plans to transform the building into luxury apartments.

The second-generation owners of the Eastbourne Fruit Supply are shutting up shop next June, after 65 years of operation.

Locals have been disappointed to learn the Lai family is moving on, but developer Sam Faisandier is also aware of the speculation about what’s next – and notably, how high?

The director of family-run business, the Faisandier Group, said after almost a decade of residential builds in Lower Hutt, he’s excited for the challenge ahead, not to mention the site.

“Corner sites are quite special to get your hands on, every block there’s only four of those in there, and this is probably one of one – it’s got that north-west aspect and it’s in the centre of the village, which is very tightly held.”

The final plans were still underwraps, but he had the vision – 8-10 luxury apartments above 200 square metres of commercial space – including (hopefully) a new green-grocer. Car parks were also on the cards.

The target demographic? The downsizer who wanted to stay in the area.

Faisandier said the size and location meant they’d have to be smart about the build.

“Building up in Wellington has always been challenging. There’s been a lot of under-development. So, I think fitting in with the area – four to five levels is probably where it sits best.”

But best was up for debate, with local of 38 years Margs Mills adamant the new construction shouldn’t be too high.

“Eastbourne is quite an iconic little village that we’re very lucky to live in. To be frank, two storeys high, three at a push, would be more than enough.”

The village centre had only one building higher, Rona House – a seven-floor apartment block. Mills said people love living there, but it hasn’t been without controversy.

“The plan was to have two of them, but once the first one was built – and this was years ago – everyone went nuts and said, it causes a terrible wind funnel.

“We don’t want anything very tall.”

Mills said change was inevitable but it had to be in keeping with the flavour of the village.

As for the commercial spaces below the apartments, she had some ideas.

“Certainly another green-grocer because we’re going to miss the Lais terribly.

“Some kind of gift shop would be really nice. Maybe a nice restaurant would be fantastic, a nice family restaurant.”

Eastbourne Community Board member Bruce Spedding, said he did his best to keep his finger on the pulse of the tight-knit community.

With regard to a new development, he felt the biggest concern was that it wouldn’t fit with the village character.

“Four storeys sounds fairly dramatic for Eastbourne, so it would depend on the impact that that has on the village. How the design fits in with what’s already here.”

He said there was nothing wrong with apartments, but reserved further judgment until he’d seen the plans.

Spedding said a revamped retail strip (in the ground-floor commercial space) would be pretty important, and could see it tying in with a future visitor boom brought about by a new ferry and cycleway into Wellington city.

“So all that will involve a lot more outside people coming into Eastbourne, so we want to be able to cater for that as well. It’s quite exciting, there’s a lot going to happen next year, I think.”

He said ultimately anything that supported Eastbourne businesses was a good thing.

“These things that are happening could in fact be sort of revitalising.

“Basically, what we want to do is just make it viable for what we’ve got to remain here.

“In a lot of other places, businesses are closing down and moving out and communities are losing local resources … so it’s quite a positive thing in that regard.”

Spedding said although it was no longer required in the district plan, he encouraged a community meeting so the developer could share plans and hear feedback – a proposition Faisandier was open to, once plans firmed up.

Faisandier said the company wasn’t in a rush – there were projects to finish first – and they wanted to get it right.

“Our challenge will be to blend it into the surroundings and use the right type of materials and look.

“There is a bit of special flair … I want to reuse some of the exisiting brick. So, there’s a little bit of a cherry … we’ll try and incorporate some of the materials and recycle them into the construction.”

He said all going well, the timeframe to begin work was 2027.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s tough for shoppers buying meat and dairy at the checkout but strong dairy payouts and higher returns for sheep and beef farmers are fuelling the early days of economic recovery.

The latest look at the state of regional economies by consultancy Infometrics confirms the recovery is underway but is still patchy with South Island regions outpacing growth seen in their North Island counterparts in the September quarter.

Nationally, economic activity rose 0.9 percent in the quarter but has not yet returned to the level it was at this time last year.

Infometrics principal economist and lead demographer Nick Brunsdon says the growth story remains a tale of two islands with all South Island regions growing faster than the national average, boosted by the strength of the primary sector.

“Encouragingly, even metro areas are starting to recover, collectively gaining 0.7 percent per annum in the September quarter, although this recovery remains slower than provincial and rural areas,” he said.

“Fonterra continues to forecast a strong dairy payout midpoint of $10 per kg of milk solids and if this figure falls, as the latest Global Dairy Trade auctions imply, farmers would still wind up with the second-highest payout on record.

“Returns for beef and lamb have increased too – at the expense of consumers buying mince – but boosting returns for dry stock farmers.

“Kiwifruit and apple growers are also earning a higher return on elevated export volumes.”

The warming of regional economies has yet to translate through to an increase in spending, he said.

Households were carefully guarding their wallets with a backdrop of continued job losses.

“Businesses are going ‘cool, orders are up, but we’re not quite at the point where we need to hire more staff’ and so they’re generally going to hold off until that order book solidifies and they get the confidence that they actually do need to add to their roster.”

On the jobs front, five South Island regions saw growth in the number of filled roles during the quarter. The West Coast led the pack with 1.6 employment percent growth.

Nationally, employment went backwards, falling 0.6 percent, with metro areas even worse off with a 0.8 percent decline.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Co-Operative Bank says it is the only bank to have passed on the full official cash rate cut to floating mortgages – but other banks say that isn’t the full story.

Since the Reserve Bank began reductions to the OCR 15 months ago, it has dropped from 5.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

Another cut is expected this month.

In response, the Co-operative Bank said it had reduced its floating home loan rate by 3.1 percentage points – or just slightly more than the drop in the OCR.

It said other banks had dropped their floating rates by between 2.55 and 2.7.

Reserve Bank data shows that advertised special fixed home loan rates have dropped over that same period from about 7 percent on average for six-month terms, 6.9 percent for one-year and 6.5 percent for two years, to 4.8 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.3 percent on average respectively.

Mark Wilkshire, chief executive of The Co-operative Bank, said, “With the bank’s floating volumes almost doubling in the last year, we’re pleased to offer both great value and flexibility through our market leading rate.

“We estimate that New Zealanders could be paying more than $100 million per annum extra due to the amount of floating rate cuts held back by the big four Australian banks,” he said.

“With another OCR review due at the end of November, it will be interesting to see how other banks respond in what remains a delicately poised economic recovery,” Wilkshire said.

He said people often did not pay a lot of attention to floating rates but the amount being paid in interest on them would add up.

“There’s $47 billion sitting out there in the banks on floating rates so it does fly a bit under the radar. We thought it was worth taking stock as we head towards the bottom of the cycle.

“How much is being passed on out of that across the whole sector? And it certainly adds up when you look at all the amount that customers have sitting on floating balances.”

But ANZ said people looking at rate changes needed to consider the full interest rate cycle.

“Through the recent interest rate cycle, following changes to the OCR (both increases and decreases), there are times when we’ve not passed on changes to the OCR in full.

“Between October 2021 and May 2023, the OCR increased by 5.25 percent. In response, ANZ increased floating home loan rates by only 4.2 percent. During this time the RBNZ increased the OCR 12 times. Following seven of those announcements ANZ did not pass on the full OCR increase. For example, following the 50-basis point OCR increase in February 2023, ANZ made no change to interest rates.

“Since August 2024 the RBNZ has cut the OCR eight times, from 5.5 percent to 2.5 percent. In response, ANZ has reduced home loan floating rates by 2.75 percent.

“In summary, when the OCR was increasing, ANZ increased home loan floating rates by 105-basis points less than the total OCR hikes. In the more recent OCR easing cycle, we have cut our floating home loan rate by 25-basis points less than the total of OCR cuts to date. That balance needs to be considered.”

It said banks had multiple lending sources and needed to consider a range of factors when deciding to make changes to the interest rates available for lending and deposits.

Reserve Bank changes would influence wholesale market interest rates but were not the only driver.

Westpac said it was working hard to provide value across all lending and savings rates.

“Around 87 percent of our home loan customers are on a fixed home loan rate, where we offer sub-5 percent special rates on all fixed terms from six months to five years – one of the only main banks to do so. Supporting this, an analysis last week by Opes Partners rated Westpac as consistently offering the lowest fixed rates of any [main] bank over the last two years.

“While we’ve cut our variable home loan rates by 2.55 percent a year since the OCR started falling, we’ve cut some business lending rates by 3.05 percent – more than the OCR has fallen – to support them to grow. To support our savings customers, we’ve passed on just 1.75 percent of OCR cuts on our 32-day Notice Saver product.”

Wilkshire said most people were still taking short-terms when they came to refix.

“The majority choice is still going for those one-year rates because they are the lowest rates. But that’s where I think a good conversation with someone who offers good service will actually look at your whole needs and see what suits you and take those circumstances into account because you do want to look at what you’re paying on floating, what you’re paying on fixed and should you be fixing for the longer term as we head towards the bottom of that cycle.

“I think rather just defaulting to the lowest rate at the moment, it is probably just worth having a broader look at the full range of your options.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Investor confidence is improving, with a clear divergence of strategies between investors over 60 and those under 30 years of age.

The third quarter ASB Investor Confidence Survey indicates an overall 9 percent improvement in confidence, with a net positive investor confidence rate of 10 percent, compared with 1 percent in the last quarter.

“While confidence has edged up, the underlying drivers of uncertainty, like global events, policy changes, and a sluggish property market, remain, ” ASB senior economist Chris Tennent-Brown said.

“Looking ahead, the overall message is one of cautious optimism.

“Markets have recovered since the volatility we had earlier in the year, and that’s impacting sentiment positively now, but the flat housing market and lower term deposit rates continue to weigh on the mood.”

He said investor confidence was highest in Auckland at more than 16 percent, compared with the rest of New Zealand at 7 percent, with the South Island was at 8 percent and Lower North Island at the bottom with just 3 percent.

“Perceptions about housing being the place to generate the most wealth are very low for under 30s, who may still be trying to work out how to get into the property market, a stark but understandable contrast to the over 60 participants, whose wealth may be tied up in property,” Tennent-Brown said.

He said there was a clear difference between the investment strategies of young and old.

Perceptions of a home as the best returning investment had dropped to the lowest level since first measured in 2015, with under 30s driving the shift to other investments.

“We expect the older age brackets, 60 plus, to have more exposure to property, more exposure to term deposits. They still feel downbeat about term deposits, upbeat about housing,” he said.

“It’s a really diverse bunch of answers when we split it by age and stage of life.”

He said the under 30s surveyed were focussed on other investments, particularly the share market, where confidence had lifted significantly over the past quarter, jumping to 21 percent compared with 13 percent in the previous quarter.

Overall, managed investments were steady at 14 percent and just under KiwiSaver, which had overtaken rental property and term deposits in perceived return.

Public shares were also gaining favour, with perceptions increasing to 12 percent.

Other options such as rental property, term deposits, and bank savings accounts remained stable, but were no longer seen as the stand-out choices they once were.

Global outlook

Global political instability or uncertainty remained the top concern for investors, with 90 percent citing it as a key factor, though there had been a notable drop in those ‘very or extremely concerned’, with fewer investors looking to adjustment their portfolios.

“Investors are adapting to a constantly changing global backdrop, and while the mood is more positive than last quarter, it is far from buoyant,” he said.

“In fact, 53 percent of those with concerns are now choosing not to make any changes – an improvement from last quarter.

“What we’re seeing is that investors are becoming more accustomed to uncertainty. Based on our customers’ behaviour, most are choosing to stay the course and not make changes to their portfolios, even as global headlines continue to shift.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Māori business leaders are feeling upbeat about performance, driven by a stronger primary sector.

The latest edition of accounting firm BDO’s Pūrongo Pakihi Māori, the Māori Business Sector Report, showed nearly two thirds of Māori business leaders were positive about current overall business performance – second only to the agricultural sector.

BDO Māori business sector leader Solomon Dalton said the upbeat sentiment reflected the strong presence of primary sector firms amongst Māori businesses.

“A lot of our businesses are in the primary industry, which has had strong performance over the last few years,” Dalton said.

However, beyond the primary sector, Māori businesses faced challenging conditions.

“Managing cash flow remains a key priority for Māori business leaders,” Dalton said. “However, we’re seeing cautious optimism about the future.”

“What will be key over the next six months is more certainty around economic conditions in helping unlock potential business growth by encouraging more Māori business leaders to invest in their people and resources – helping stimulate the wider economy.”

Dalton encouraged firms to look at cash flow as they navigate challenging periods and work in 12 week cycles.

He said firms could also look to make investments that could save money long-term.

“Our BDO Pakihi Māori team are seeing a growing adoption of solar technology and the transitioning of business fleets to EV vehicles, not only bringing cost efficiencies for Māori businesses but also supporting their climate responsibilities,” Dalton said.

Māori business leaders felt least positive about external economic factors, followed by financial performance and climate risk.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Farmers chasing the high dairy prices seen last season are partly behind the current oversupply now putting them under pressure, according to an economist.

The average price fell three percent to US$3678 a tonne at last night’s global dairy trade auction – the 7th consecutive drop and a new 15-month low.

However, ASB senior economist Chris Tennent-Brown said the price fall was not unexpected.

He said there were early signals that milk production would be very strong this season.

“That price weakness has been something we’ve had in our forecasts since May, when we started making predictions for the season ahead,” he said.

“We came in with what seemed like a conservative forecast there of 9.75 when Fonterra had a starting forecast of $10 but with a really wide range.

“Let’s face it, even if it was 9.50, if it wasn’t for the fact that we’d just had a milk price north of $10, we’d be thinking this is fantastic news.”

Tennent-Brown said they’d stick with their forecast price for now, though the weather might impact supply.

He said this was the case when last year’s summer drought saw production taper off over the final months of the season, helping farmers get to a record 10-dollar-per kilo of milk solids payout.

“It’s a classic response that prices are going to be good. You’re going to be motivated to do what it takes to keep production high as an individual farmer but that adds up to the sort of production growth we’ve seen.

“From a farmer’s perspective, you want to make as much milk as you can and capture the good prices so it’s not like anyone will be praying for a drought so prices can pick up.

“But if conditions remain favourable, I think we’ll see good production numbers and in turn, it’s hard to see prices really turning around and heading north.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Four power lines companies are deploying drones linked to an artificial intelligence system to spot weak poles and lines.

They are linking in to Tapestry, a system created by Google to help maintain power grids and fix networks after natural disasters.

Northpower, the Orion Group, Unison Networks and WEL Networks have half a million customers.

They aim to train the AI on 10,000 images of 10 types of grid assets over the next two years.

“This technology will enhance our asset planning, help us dispatch crews with more efficiency, and ensure our teams know exactly what they are dealing with on every job,” Northpower chief executive Andrew McLeod said in a statement on Wednesday.

WEL chief executive Garth Dibley said by working together the four would improve overall network reliability and efficiency.

“By sharing our network data, asset imagery, engineering expertise and technology platforms, we’re enabling smarter AI solutions that no single EDB [energy distribution business] could achieve alone,” he said in a statement.

Auckland lines company Vector has been training the AI models on its network for several years, after Google chose New Zealand for its “moonshot” project.

At Vector, the [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570610/how-drones-could-cut-aucklanders-power-bills

inspection time at a power pole was cut] from 30-45 minutes to under 10 minutes.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570610/how-drones-could-cut-aucklanders-power-bills

Business website reports the new move as, ‘Alphabet-Led AI Project to Shield New Zealand Grid From Outages’.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Households remain under pressure from high costs as they approach the busy shopping period, with many likely to turn to debt or additional income sources to pay for presents.

A nationwide survey by accounting software firm MYOB, showed 35 percent expected to feel financially better off in a year’s time, while 38 percent expected to be about the same, and 24 percent believed they would be worse off.

The survey polled just over 1000 adults across the country.

Looking back at the year, a third said their financial position was the same as it was this time last year, while a quarter felt better off, and 42 percent felt worse off.

“New Zealanders have shown remarkable resilience in what has been another challenging year for local households, and it’s clear from the response coming through in our survey that the financial strain continues to be felt deeply,” MYOB chief customer officer Dean Chadwick said.

“However, we are starting to see a shift in confidence, likely helped by easing interest rates and a sense that the worst of some cost pressures may be behind us.”

The survey also asked about households’ shopping plans for the Christmas period.

More than half expected to spend about the same on gifts last year, and 15 percent set to spend more, while more than a quarter planned to cut back.

MYOB said to help cover costs, people were turning to side hustles or additional income sources, or turn to credit or buy-now-pay-later options.

“For many Kiwi families, the pressure to spend up over the season can be particularly tough – especially when relying on credit – and taking on extra work to make Christmas possible can also put an extra load on already strained households,” Chadwick said.

On average, people expected to spend $140 on gifts per person in the holiday season, compared to $163 the year before.

The survey also showed, on average, people expected to spend $415 on food and drink over the Christmas/New Year period, compared to $468 a year ago.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Napier Port has had a strong profit increase on higher cargo volumes.

Key numbers for the year ended September compared with a year ago:

• Net profit $30.9m vs $24.8m
• Underlying profit $28.3m vs $20.7m (excludes one-off unusual items)
• Revenue $157.7m vs $141.3m
• Container vols 250k vs 230k
• Bulk cargo 3.4m tonnes vs 3.5m
• Forecast 2026 underlying earnings between $70m-$74m
• Full year dividend 14.5 cents per share vs 9 cps

The country’s fourth biggest port handled more cargo with a rise in container volumes offsetting a dip in log exports.

Chief executive Todd Dawson said the region had rebounded after Cyclone Gabrielle and the port was benefiting from the “breadth and depth” of the recovery.

“It is pleasing to see many of our region’s cargo owners, who produce the high-value food and fibre products we export, benefiting from good growing and improved market conditions during the year.”

He said the increase in container volumes had pressured its resources, and it would invest in more equipment to handle the growth.

The lift in container revenue offset a drop in bulk cargo, which reflected lower log exports, while revenue from cruise ships also decreased in line with fewer visits .

Dawson said revenue was also supported by shipping lines using Napier as a transhipment point because of congestion and delays at other ports.

The bottom line was boosted by a final cyclone insurance payout of $7.5 million.

Dawson expected growth for the port to be driven by local food exporters.

“While regional exporters continue to face trade uncertainties in international export markets, the trade outlook for the region’s food and fibre exports remains positive.”

However, cruise ship visits were expected to fall further with 60 bookings so far for the coming season.

The company said it would pay staff a bonus and it increased the dividend payout to shareholders.

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