Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fast food giant McDonald’s is worried about losing lower-income customers, as data shows it can probably no longer be considered a “cheap” food option.

When McDonald’s released its latest earnings report in the United States it said comparable sales were up but chief executive Christopher Kempczinski said low-income customers were avoiding its restaurants.

CNBC reported that he noted “traffic from lower-income consumers declining nearly double-digits in the third quarter, a trend that’s persisted for nearly two years.

“Traffic growth among higher-income consumers remains strong, increasing nearly double-digits in the quarter.”

A spokesperson for McDonald’s in New Zealand said this country did not report on total sales or business performance so he could not say whether the same trend was happening here.

On social media posts recently, customers have questioned the price of the new Big Arch burger, and complained that there had been price increases on the McDonald’s app.

On Uber Eats this week, a Bacon & Egg McMuffin was $9.30, a Big Mac was $11.80 and a cheeseburger $6.80. A Big Arch burger was $16.

Another said it was like a Big Mac but more expensive while a third customer said it was due to wage rises.

Burger King had a Whopper with cheese for $14.80 and a Hawaiian BK Chicken for $17.60. Its triple cheeseburger was $13.90.

Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said Stats NZ data showed takeaway food of all types had become a lot more expensive recently.

Between September 2005 and September 2025, the consumer price index had risen 66 percent, the food price index 84 percent, ready-to-eat food 103 percent and a Big Mac 93 percent.

Fish and chips had lifted 154 percent.

Kiernan said the fact the Big Mac had increased in price less than the 147 percent increase in the minimum wage over the period could be considered a good outcome.

He said takeaway food prices would have been driven up by both the wider increase in food prices and the cost of labour.

Bodo Lang, a marketing expert at Massey University, said it was often said that McDonald’s had stopped being a cheap option but he was not convinced that weas the case.

“Despite offering high priced menu items, McDonalds still offers a range of choices for smaller appetites and smaller wallets. Classic items, such as the Big Mac or Quarter Pounder are still likely at the cheaper end when compared to others. For example, McDonald’s prices are comparable with other international chains such as Burger King or KFC. Even when compared to local independent operators, McDonalds prices are still fairly comparable. At least for its classic items. Ordering anything via an app and have it delivered will obviously at much cost and little convenience, thus distorting consumers price impression.”

Burger Fuel was charging $24.50 for a Bacon Backfire burger on Uber Eats this week.

“What McDonald’s has done very well is to diversify its product portfolio to appeal to different tastes and wallet sizes. While its classics are still available at comparatively low prices, McDonald’s luxe items, such as its Grilled Chicken Bacon Deluxe, are at the upper end of the price range and compete head on with the likes of local chains, such as Burger Fuel. So McDonald’s has done an excellent job of trying to appeal to its classic customers, particularly through bundles and offers, while appealing to others with premium priced items,” Lang said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Body Shop brand returns to NZ after seven month absence
• New local franchise opens shop in Richmond, new website
• Gradual growth expected, plans for two more shops

Ethical beauty brand The Body Shop has returned to this country with a new franchise owner and a new store in Richmond, a town near Nelson in the South Island.

The New Zealand operation was caught in the financial troubles of the UK business and was put into liquidation in April with the [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/556928/all-body-shop-stores-close-around-country-70-staff-lose-jobs

closure of 16 shops and the loss of about 70 jobs].

The collapse and later sale of the UK business ended the financial lifeline for the New Zealand operation, and attempts to finalise a local sale did not succeed, resulting in its liquidation and liabilities of around $12 million, half of which was inter-company loans.

A new locally owned franchise, Version3, owned by Nelson based Pamela Bonira and Khan Wyman, has relaunched the brand with the shop and an online retail site.

Franchise general manager Wyman said there had been strong public demand and backing for the return of the brand.

“Our vision is simple: to provide high-quality ethical products while rebuilding strong relationships with our community.

“We expect organic growth in 2026 and beyond and plan for at least two more stores across the country in the coming years, guided by customer feedback and demand.”

The chair and chief executive of the revived UK Body Shop, Mike Jatania, said the re-entry to New Zealand was a step forward in growing the business.

“This launch will not only reconnect us with a passionate customer base but also contribute to the sustainable, long-term growth of our business.”

The Body Shop brand, founded by the late Anita Roddick, built its marketing on producing and retailing natural beauty products emphasising environmental and ethical values.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Global transport firm Mainfreight has seen a difficult first half, driving net profit down more than 18 percent, with tighter margins and sales harder to make.

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

• Net profit $93.4m vs $114.6m down 18.5 percent
• Revenue $2.61b vs $2.55b up 2.1 percent
• Underlying profit before tax $131.7m vs $161.2m down 18.2 percent
• Interim dividend 85 cents per share – unchanged

“The first quarter was extremely tough. We are now seeing trading improve, particularly in New Zealand and Australia,” managing director Don Braid said.

Both regions were seeing improvement in the second half, with increasing market share and a pick-up in freight volumes.

He said Mainfreight was continuing to open more warehouses, with Christchurch and the planned Auckland sites examples of customer-driven demand.

Asia and Europe divisions were also continuing to see improvements.

“America’s our toughest market for us at this point in time. It’s an ongoing, long term business for us. We see a large amount of potential for us over a long period of time,” Braid said.

“It reminds us a little bit of when we were in Australia, 20 years ago, 25 years ago. How tough that was then.

“Now, Australia is our biggest market, and at some point in time, we think that America will do the same for us.”

He said the outlook was brighter overall.

“Our team have done a magnificent job in gaining market share,” Braid said.

“I think you’ll see that through to the year end results, where we’ve picked up more market share, particularly in our home market of New Zealand and Australia.

“It’s a really tough operating environment, but for us, we’re starting to see improvements and we do expect a busy Christmas.”

Mainfreight will release its financial results for the full 2026 financial year on 28 May 2026.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hotels are expected to reach capacity next week with two major events coming to the city, Auckland Council’s cultural agency says.

Hotels in the city reached 96 percent occupancy in November 2024 with concerts from Pearl Jam and Coldplay, and 90 percent earlier this year in January thanks to the Luke Combs concert and SailGP.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited said supported major and business events contributed to an $89 million boost in GDP in the last financial year.  

Rock band Metallica was set to draw crowds next week, alongside the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education.

The conference was expected to be the largest academic conference the country had ever held, with roughly 3,800 attendees, while was set to play a sold out crowd at Eden Park.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s Director of Destination Annie Dundas said they were hoping to reach 100 percent occupancy by next Wednesday.

“We are almost at 100 percent occupany,” she said.

“It doesn’t happen often but our plan is, with our major event and business event programme of work, that we want this to happen more often to support our amazing accomodation and hospitality sectors.”

Dundas said a successful summer season was needed for the city’s hotel sector.

She said summer was when hotels and most tourism operators make their money for the whole year.

“We need summers to be good,” Dundas said, “we’ve got a lot of increased capacity in Auckland in terms of accomodation so a lot of great new hotels have opened over the last sort of 12 to 18 months, which was, of course, all planned prior to Covid.”

“We’ve got about 18,000 rooms to fill across the city every night, and so having a really great roster of major events as well as business events really helps to fill that volume into those properties.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lower interest rates may be saving first-home buyers more than $480 a month, and helping more people into the property market.

Cotality and Westpac have released their latest First-Home Buyer Report, which shows first-time buyers accounted for 27.7 percent of property purchases nationwide in the September quarter.

That is a record, up from a previous high of 26.9 percent in December.

In the wider Wellington region, they were responsible fort 36 percent of property purchases in the first nine months of the year. Rotorua was another area where they were strong, at 32 percent.

The data shows they are buying houses with smaller deposits. Westpac said the average loan-to-value ratio for first-home buyers was 79 percent, up from less than 75 percent three years ago.

Cotality New Zealand chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said there were a number of factors on first-home buyers’ side, including more houses for sale to choose from and easing loan-to-value rules.

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said falling interest rates had been a big help to allow people to enter the market sooner, with smaller deposits.

“It’s meaning the housing market is now a lot more affordable for New Zealanders looking to get their first home.

“We’ve seen a lift in lending to first home buyers, with activity now at its highest level in more than three years. Lower interest rates mean some FHBs won’t need to raise as much equity, given that the same cash outflow will now service a larger loan.

“Compared to this time last year, one-year fixed mortgage rates are nearly 150 basis points lower, while two-year fixed mortgage rates are around 250 basis points lower than in 2023.

“The fall in the one-year mortgage rate over the past year shaved around $485 off the average FHB’s monthly minimum mortgage payments. That’s a saving equivalent to 4 percent to 5 percent of the average first-home buyer’s monthly income, based on the median price of $700,000,” he said.

The average age of a first-home buyer has increased to 36, from about 34 pre-Covid.

First-home buyers had paid a median price so far this year of $700,000, just above the $695,000 paid last year.

They favoured standalone houses.

Davidson said a typical first-home buyer was not purchasing the cheapest properties in the market. The lower-quartile price across all buyers is $585,000.

They made up 35 percent of purchases in the cheapest 30 percent of the market. But activity was rising across all price brackets.

Ranchhod and Davidson said conditions should remain favourable for first-home buyers in the near term.

“House prices may well start to rise again in 2026 but the pace should not be so strong that first-home buyers fall behind,” Davidson said.

Ranchhod agreed their strength in the market should continue.

“We’re still expecting to see another reduction in the official cash rate from the Reserve Bank and importantly we’ve had big interest rate cuts over the past year and we haven’t seen the full impact yet. As that ripples through the economy and the jobs market that will support a pickup in the housing market including first-home buyers.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lotto has jackpotted to $45 million for Wednesday’s draw – but what would you do if you won it? While you might have a wishlist of houses, cars, travel and shopping, one financial adviser who has previously advised winners says there are a few things you should know.

Tim Fairbrother, of Rival Wealth, said people who won were often in a state of disbelief initially.

If you win when you’re playing online, you will be sent a prize claim form.

• What do I do if the bubble bursts? [ https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/no-stupid-questions/2025/What-do-I-do-if-the-bubble-bursts Listen to No Stupid Questions with Susan Edmunds]

Winners with a physical ticket can take it to a shop they bought it from and fill out a form, or go to the Lotto head office in Auckland.

In most cases, Lotto staff try to meet in person with winners to talk to them about what will happen (there is champagne offered).

Winners are given a booklet that proclaims on the front “This is not a dream”.

In it, it offers tip on how to handle a life-changing amount of money.

Secure the ticket

Fairbrother said many people spent some time carrying the ticket around before they claimed their win, because they almost could not believe it had happened.

“If you’re telling everyone that you won but you haven’t’ secured your ticket then that can be a bit of a problem – perhaps if the ticket is suddenly not in the place you thought it was going to be.”

If you aren’t going straight to claim, keep the ticket somewhere very safe.

Deposit the money into a savings account

Lotto advises that the money should be paid into an interest-earning account while you work out your next steps.

If you win Powerball, it says, it can give you the details of the person at your bank who can help you with depositing the money.

Some people do not want this to go through heir local branch.

Think about who to tell

Lotto said people should carefully consider who they wanted to tell about their win.

Fairbrother agreed. He said if it became common knowledge, the money could change people.

“Especially big amounts of money. It might not be you, it might be the people around you who suddenly have their hands out thinking ‘man, this is going to be good for me’.”

People were likely to encourage winners to invest in various things, or spend their money in certain ways – he said these should be approached with caution.

Have a plan

Lotto advises that people think about what they want to do with their money, have a plan and list of goals and check in on it regularly.

Fairbrother said people could work with an adviser to talk through their ideas and come up with a strategy.

“Make sure you have got the right accountant and lawyer so that you’re getting your structure right for tax and optimising what that looks like.”

He said those discussions would usually involve talking to people about what was important to them.

“What are your overarching goals now you’ve won this money? It might be a million dollars, which is amazing. But it might be $44m, which is epically life-changing, isn’t it?

“If you’re living in a $600,000 home you might want to go and extend the house, build a tennis court and swimming pool, or sell it altogether.

“How much do you want people to know this has happened to you? If you go and sell your $600,000 house and buy a $4m house, people are going to start asking questions.’

An investment portfolio would be structured according to a person’s wishes, he said.

Some might want to invest in commercial property, or a residential development including a number of homes.

“Or it might be saying I don’t want to deal with any of that, I’m just going to put it into a managed portfolio,. It’s going to be a mix of those things and it’s going to be a steep learning curve. You don’t need to go about it quickly, there’s no point rushing and doing things fast.”

Some purchases would be investments and others would depreciate, he said.

Knowing the difference would help to make wealth last.

“I knew of someone many years ago before I was a financial adviser, who a significant amount in Lotto and basically within three years he had got rid of it all by buying expensive cars and not understanding those expensive cars are going to be depreciating assets.

“By the time you drive it off the lot it loses 20 percent or whatever, then two or three years later it is down 60 percent.”

Pay off debt

If you win a smaller amount than $44m, it usually makes sense to use it to pay off debt.

Fairbrother said people with a mortgage would usually want to pay that off. “That puts them in a whole different financial position going forward into the future where they’re now able to save each month as opposed to paying the bank for their mortgage.”

Be careful with gifting

Many people wanted to give money to others, Fairbrother said, particularly to help their kids buy houses.

“If you want to give it, it’s better to do what they call an interest-free loan payable on demand.

“That means if there are problems in the future with their own relationships or whatever they might be, you can ask them to pay the money back. If you give a couple $100,000 then as soon as it goes into their account it becomes relationship property whereas if you loan it to them then you can ask to have to back again in the future.”

Write a will

Fairbrother said as soon as people had that much money to their name, they needed to do some estate planning.

A will would be essential to avoid disputes if something happened to them.

“You’re not going to end up with your children arguing over the fact you promised them more for any particular reason.”

Tax

Lotto winners do not have to pay tax on their price, as in some other countries.

But they also cannot have it paid as an annual income, it has to be a lump sum.

You don’t have to declare it as income if you’re getting a benefit unless you receive the accommodation supplement, temporary additional support or special benefit.

But any income you make from your money will reduce your eligibility for support.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The New Zealand economy is dying a death of a thousand cuts from the vice-like grip of monopolies in key sectors, according to a leading competition campaigner.

Monopoly Watch leader Tex Edwards said the large profits reported by three of the big four Australian-owned banks in the past week highlighted the power of a handful of companies, and the inability of policy markers to bring them to heel.

“When we look at why the economy is underperforming, it’s almost death by a thousand cuts, or in this case death by 10 or 20 cuts, because there 10 or 20 monopolies that are extracting monopoly rents.

“Supermarkets, electricity companies, airports, insurance companies, and banks are under scrutiny and what we’re seeing is a continued amount of tinkering and pampering instead of structural reform.”

Over the past week ANZ, BNZ, and Westpac reported full year results, with collective profits for the three of them of about $5.2 billion.

More regulation needed

Edwards said the banking sector needed further regulatory intervention to bring benefits for consumers, but he said various select committee inquiries, a Commerce Commission banking study, and regulator scrutiny had achieved little.

He said the large banks had been adept in selling the message that they were bringing capital into the country, paying significant taxes, supporting economic activity, and supporting increased competition in a sector that they had more than 80 percent of.

“They’ve used this to confuse politicians and policy makers as to how competition would evolve.”

Edwards said the banks had surrounded themselves with PR and policy lobbyists, who had effectively “captured” policy makers, politicians, and regulators.

He said comments by politicians that they hoped the big banks would pass on Reserve Bank rate cuts more quickly were “naive”.

He said the big four had also slowed the introduction of open banking, which would allow third party financial businesses to offer competing financial services, by taking time to modernise their technical systems.

“New Zealand banks have delayed open banking, because it would lower margins and lower profitability.”

He advocated that Payments NZ, which managed the payments system that settled transactions between banks, should be taken out of the control of the eight banks which own it.

Previously, Monopoly Watch has also called for ANZ to be forced to divest the National Bank of NZ, which it was allowed to take over in 2003, and was fully merged in 2012.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) says stakeholders are more confident in its performance.

Its annual report and the attendant Ease of Doing Business (EODB) survey shows 84 percent of respondents have confidence in the country’s financial markets, a similar level to last year

The ease of doing business survey seeks feedback from stakeholders and industry participants to understand the effectiveness of their interactions with the FMA, and their views on FMA’s overall effectiveness in delivering its mandate.

Chief Executive Samantha Barrass said after a decline in a number of key indicators in last year’s survey, a year of hard work and extensive industry engagement saw better results from this year.

“Overall belief that the FMA’s actions help raise standards of market conduct and integrity is up slightly, at 82 percent this year, but still behind our ambitious 90  percent target.”

The financial markets regulator said it had improved its communications and engagement measures with the industry, and 74 percent of participants found FMA communication clear, concise, and effective, an improvement on last year’s 63 percent.

Still work to do

The regulator is still seen falling short on several measures, which only marginally improved from last year.

It is still regarded as too bureaucratic, with just 55 percent of the industry believing it develops and implements streamlined processes; a slight improvement from 48 percent last year.

Only 56 percent agreed it was easy doing business with the Authority, a marginal improvement from 53 percent a year ago.

The FMA had achieved nine of 12 targets, but still had work to do improving its systems and processes, which may have dragged its overall rating lower, Barrass said.

“We are committed to improving and modernising our systems, to uplift performance and support new features.”

Barrass said regulating the financial markets continues to be a balancing act which may have affected their confidence and market integrity ratings.

“We note comments vary between those who favour more enforcement and those who favour lighter regulation, perhaps reflecting tensions in the balance the FMA seeks to strike- between the need to make it easier for the financial sector to do business with the need to ensure integrity.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand