Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Consumer Confidence falls to 91.3 points from 100.1 in February
• A net negative 14 percent of households think it is a good time to make a major purchase
• A net 10 percent expect to be better off this time next year, down from last month’s net 20 percent
• A net negative 20 percent of consumers fell worse off now, down from last months minus 16 percent
• Consumers believe inflation will rise to 5.7 percent in the next two years

The Middle East conflict has torpedoed consumer confidence in March, and early evidence suggests households are closing their wallets.

March’s ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index fell sharply into negative territory at 91.3 points, well below last month’s 101.1 points.

Any score under 100 indicates pessimism.

The impact of the Middle Eastern conflict on consumers was immediate, with every metric in the latest survey turning negative.

ANZ said the conflict created significant uncertainty for the economic outlook and was already hitting people in the back pocket.

It said the hit to confidence would likely be negative for growth and it was reasonable to believe that both firms and households would think twice about making making spending decisions, in case things went from bad to worse.

Consumers were caught in a perfect storm in March, hit by higher fuel prices and rising mortgage rates.

Chief economist Sharon Zollner said the data was even worse in real time than the headline suggested.

“It’s not the full story because we can actually look at it as the month evolved, and in the last week of sampling it was (consumer confidence) under 80,” she said.

Zollner said the same pattern had repeated across the Tasman where Australian consumer confidence had “dropped like a stone”.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Paying dairy farmers a premium for their white gold could come at a cost to Synlait Milk, according to an agribusiness expert.

The Dunsandel-based processor and exporter increased its farmgate milk price this week to up to $9.90 per kilogram of milk solids for the financial year, 20 cents higher than competitor Fonterra’s new current season midpoint.

But it also released what bosses labelled a “frustratingly disappointing” half-year financial result, due to manufacturing challenges and inventory kerfuffles between raw and powdered milk through 2025.

It reported a $80.6 million loss in the six months to late January, while debts soared to $472.1m.

Lincoln University senior lecturer in agribusiness Dr Nic Lees said the company was under significant financial stress, which could affect farmer confidence.

“Farmers do have options. I suspect this result’s not going to add confidence amongst farmers that there isn’t a financial risk for them supplying Synlait.”

Lees said the company’s sales were no longer covering the direct cost of making and processing its products. He said paying farmers the higher milk price added to the pressure, increasing raw material costs, but he could understand the strategy.

“They need to be able to be offering their suppliers something more than what they can get from supplying Fonterra or Open Country,” he said. “They are having to pay a risk premium to their suppliers to try and hold those.”

• Do you supply Synlait? Let us know your thoughts monique.steele@rnz.co.nz

He said Synlait faced fixed retail pricing in “onerous” customer contracts, making it more vulnerable to fluctuating global prices – which differed to how Fonterra could pass on costs.

“In some ways from Fonterra’s point of view, the higher milk price is beneficial to their farmers. Whereas from Synlait’s perspective, higher milk price means higher costs for their raw materials, which potentially is difficult to directly pass on to their customers.”

Lees said Synlait was lucky to have major long-term shareholders like Bright Dairy of China that had significant financial scale, so the losses would not threaten the overall business.

But he said the results showed the challenge of going down the “value-add pathway” into retail, like into its consumer brand Dairyworks.

It came as Fonterra divested its consumer brands business under Mainland Group, for dairy products including ice creams and cheese.

This week, Fonterra announced its net profit for the six months ended January rose 3 percent on last year to $750m.

Poor 2025 results don’t reflect future – company

When publishing the results to the New Zealand Exchange, Synlait Milk chief executive Richard Wyeth and chairman George Adams told investors the financial result did not define the company’s future.

“Many of you, like us, will find today’s numbers frustratingly disappointing – we are all hungry for positive financial performance,” the joint statement read.

“The result reflects a period where Synlait faced multiple headwinds with little choice as to how to deal with them.”

Synlait’s “realistic” roadmap to recovery sought to position it for future growth, grow high-margin products from existing assets and accelerate growth and future growth opportunities.

Last year, the dairy company sold its North Island operations, including its Pōkeno site, for $307m to help the balance sheet.

It said on Monday the sale was on track to be completed from 1 April.

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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 government has fleshed out its National Fuel Plan, outlining rationing measures that would be taken if supplies start running dry.

Resembling the Covid alert levels, the plan has four ‘phases’. New Zealand is at phase one.

Phase 2 would see homes, businesses and the public sector encouraged to conserve fuel.

The higher phases are still under consultation.

Phase 3 would see fuel prioritised for life-preserving services and phase 4 would see stricter intervention in fuel distribution.

Moving up or down levels is decided by a ministerial oversight group based on fuel stocks, restrictions and supply chain data.

“While there is currently no need for fuel restrictions, the public can be assured that the government is planning carefully, acting early and making sure New Zealand is well positioned to respond, whatever the global environment brings,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.

“Ensuring New Zealand has the fuel we need to protect jobs, livelihoods and the wider economy is our first priority in managing the impact of global fuel disruption.

“The updates released today give practical effect to the National Fuel Plan established in 2024 and reflect the specific potential risks New Zealand could face as a result of major fuel disruption driven by the conflict in the Middle East.”

Minister Shane Jones, responsible for fuel security, said the updates were developed alongside the fuel industry.

“This is critical because the plan relies on fuel companies cooperating and working constructively with government,” he said.

“My expectation is that we continue to work together as the situation evolves. The industry will play a key role in providing advice to the Ministerial Oversight Group if and when we are required to consider a move between phases.

“New Zealand has sufficient fuel stocks, but we are planning for potential scenarios where obtaining future supply could become increasingly difficult.”

The criteria for changing phases were:

“The plan is designed to keep fuel flowing where it matters most, relying on market settings wherever possible, and only stepping in further if supply is genuinely at risk,” Willis said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Farms that rely on fuel are running dry as rural distributors face new limits due to spiking demand.

In Central Hawke’s Bay, the Kirk family’s large dry stock farm at Ruakawa has run out of fuel.

The farm, a half-hour’s drive south of Hastings, usually received a monthly delivery of bulk fuel for the 600-hectare site, home to up to 700 bulls and 10,000 lambs at peak.

But co-owner Caroline Kirk said the usual order expected 10 days ago never came.

She said the biggest concern was that the reticulated drinking water system for livestock ran on fuel.

“We ran out of diesel last week and we’ve just run out of unleaded this week,” she said.

“We’re totally reliant on reticulated water from tanks that we pump water to, so there is no back-up really, if we can’t run our pumps, there’s no water.”

Kirk said they were in contact with their rural fuel distributor Fern Energy, which was facing fuel allocation limits from its importers.

Fortunately, they were not feeding out a lot at the moment, she said.

“So yeah, we just have to keep going into town getting 20-litre containers. It seems a bit crazy to be going and burning fuel to go and get more fuel.”

Kirk said she believed primary production would be prioritised, as farming was vital to the economy.

“It would be nice just to know when the fuel truck is arriving and if they could please allocate our rural tankers some fuel so that they can get it delivered to farms, because we need it, yeah, to keep the country going.”

Fuel-hungry farmers being prioritised

Distributor Fern Energy said it was doing its best to prioritise fuel deliveries based on need.

The Ōtautahi-based fuel distributor and storage firm picked up fuel allocated by importers at 11 ports nationwide for its approximately 10,000 primary industry customers nationwide.

Chief executive Chris Gourley said its fuel allocation had been affected by “artificial demand”, driven by panic-buying and stockpiling of fuel as prices soared.

He said it was a complex and challenging situation, as it tried to meet its orders.

“For farmers, if they’ve got no fuel, they can’t work, so it’s really urgent,” Gourley said.

“We have to make decisions around who we think needs that fuel the most. But it’s the same for all distributors.”

Gourley said its teams understood the frequency of farmers’ fuel orders and usage, and assured they were working hard to get to all their primary sector customers.

“We’re looking at which customers are getting close to running out or are dry, and we’re focusing on them first, and we’re working our way through it as best we can.

“Looking at our information around how much fuel that farmer’s used in the past, what time of the season we’re in, and we’re working towards getting to them.”

He said hotspots where allocations were tight included in Hawke’s Bay, but also Nelson, Southland and Christchurch.

“The Hawke’s Bay around Napier has been a real hot spot for us in regards to access to fuel out of out of that port.

“You’ve got Nelson and Southland, in particular… Christchurch is also quite challenged at the moment. It’s moving, it’s dynamic.

“For example, last week, early in the week, Nelson wasn’t too much of an issue, and now it is.”

He recognised it was difficult for farmers in need of fuel, and said while it was not ideal, those in need may have to seek out their own supply from the truck stop or from other distributors.

“Farmers that are in arable or farmers that are harvesting or cutting grass, they need fuel. So they’re the ones that are really starting to use that fuel quite quickly.

“If you’re in that situation where you’ve got no fuel, look for opportunities to potentially fill up the jerry can at the truck stop.”

Panic-buying affecting country’s supply

Gourley urged the public not to panic-buy petrol, as it was having flow-on effects for the rural sector.

“If you don’t need fuel, don’t enter that market and try stockpile fuel., because it just really does generate problems for everybody.

“We’re really trying to all of us, the importers, the distributors, everybody’s trying to balance that fuel.

“We have good supplies coming in, but it’s those spikes when demand lifts, particularly artificial demand, which puts pressure on the network.”

He said calls via Fern’s hotline increased four-fold in the weeks after the war began.

The cost of Brent crude oil rose six percent to US$108.50per barrel overnight, up more than 6 percent.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Accounting software company Xero and artificial intelligence firm Anthropic have announced a multi-year deal to add AI tools to the accounting softward giant’s tools.

Under the deal, Xero will integrate Anthropic’s Claude AI system directly into its platform – and allow Xero customers to use their financial data inside Claude’s interface.

The companies say the aim is to give small businesses and their accountants real-time financial insights they can act on immediately.

Xero chief product and technology officer Diya Jolly said small business owners routinely grappled with questions about tight cashflow and overdue invoices, and the integration with Anthropic was designed to help answer those in seconds.

“To run their business efficiently, small business owners and their accountants and bookkeepers need to be able to answer these questions and act on them in real time, whether using Xero or Claude,” she said.

Xero said the AI tools would reduce the time businesses spend chasing invoices, manually compiling reports, or trying to forecast cashflow, with Claude proactively surfacing insights and recommended actions.

The company also emphasised that the partnership fits within its responsible data-use commitments – with financial information shared between platforms used only for a customer’s session and not used to train Claude’s AI models.

Jolly said integrating Claude moves Xero further into “agentic workflows”, with its AI assistant JAX (Just Ask Xero) helping predict cashflow gaps and carry out more complex financial tasks on behalf of users.

Anthropic managing director for international Chris Ciauri said the tools would give small businesses access to the kind of financial intelligence that previously would have required a dedicated analyst or chief financial officer.

“Instead of spending hours making sense of their financials on top of everything else it takes to run a business, customers get clear answers and recommended actions in real time,” he said.

Xero and Anthropic expect to roll out the new Claude features in the coming months.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Retailer The Warehouse has reported an improved first half net profit despite tough trading conditions.

The retailer, which operated Red Sheds, Noel Leeming and Stationery, said net profit for the six months ended 1 February rose by third on the year earlier, though revenue was little changed.

Chair John Journee said there was clear evidence the group was on the right path, though trading conditions were challenging.

“There is still more to do to restore sustainable returns, and this will take time,” he said, adding work was underway to reinstate dividend payouts to shareholders.

Key numbers for the six months ended 1 February compared with a year ago:

• Net profit $15.7m $11.8m
• Revenue $1.612b vs $1.61b
• Underlying profit $26.9 vs $19.5m
• Gross margin 32.3 percent vs 32.5 percent
• Interim dividend NIL vs NIL

Chief executive Mark Stirton said were encouraging signs improvements were resonating with customers.

“We are seeing customers respond as we get the basics right and deliver clearer value through better ranges and a stronger experience in stores,” Stirton said.

“Our Black Friday, Christmas and Back to School events performed well across the half, while severe weather events in January impacted retail spending overall and affected summer seasonal and outdoor categories at The Warehouse.”

Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming saw improved gross profit margins, while the Red Sheds continued to face margin pressure.

“Group gross profit margin declined in the first quarter, driven largely by The Warehouse, where we deliberately cleared aged and seasonal stock, saw softer sales in higher-margin categories, and faced freight pressures. Positively, gross profit margin momentum grew in the second quarter, up 30 basis points, and the quality of sales improved,” Stirton said.

Brand sales for the six months ended 1 February

• Red Shed sales up 0.5 percent to $949.5m – same store sales up 1.2 percent
• Stationery sales up 5.7 percent to $116.1m – same store sales up 1.8 percent
• Noel Leeming sales down 1.2 percent to $542.2m – same store sales down 1.3 percent

The company’s recent changes to operations were aimed at cutting the cost of doing business to less than 31 percent of sales, though would see about 270 head office jobs disappear.

Stirton said disciplined cost control was a key driver of the improved result, with operating profit increasing 38 percent.

Expansion

He said the Group will open new The Warehouse and Noel Leeming stores in Mangawhai in mid-2027 – the first new The Warehouse store since 2023.

“Mangawhai has evolved from a seasonal holiday destination into a growing year-round community. Opening new stores allows us to employ locally and better serve a community that is expanding.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Advocates say the use of AI to screen job applications is dehumanising and creates bias.

The technology is used by companies like McDonalds and Woolworths to process applications en masse, but handing the reins to a computer has Unite Union’s assistant national secretary Gerard Hehir uneasy.

“AIs are basically black boxes, because they’re not just implementing the code, they are learning and developing their own logic and system, it basically becomes a black box” he said.

“No one actually knows, at the heart of it, an AI system, how it actually makes a decision.”

Though the technology had first been marketed as a way to eliminate bias, Hehir said it had done the opposite.

“Time and time again over recent years we have seen, and there’s been in-depth studies, that of course the processes themselves often reflect the biases of those that wrote them and designed them,” he said.

“Far from actually removing the bias, they reinforce or even amplify the bias.”

Hehir said AI worked best when it was screening applicants against clear requirements, such as having a driver’s licence or the correct visa.

But he feared some companies were using AI to make subjective decisions about an applicant’s personality.

“If it’s used to assess hard, measurable criteria, no, not a problem. But when it’s making evaluations like what’s your emotional response to a question or whether you sounded a bit stressed or depressed or something like that, that is a major problem, I think it is dehumanising.”

Feedback on teen’s personality

Kapiti mum Louise Hinton had been helping her 16-year-old son apply for jobs, but was shocked when the AI used by Woolworths gave unsolicited feedback about his personality.

The AI told her son he would struggle with distractions, and didn’t like to try new things, all based on a short text conversation.

“I’m worried about his confidence, he’s dyslexic and he does have the barriers and he’s also colourblind,” Hinton explained

“For him to have that feedback, it was kind of tearing strips off him. It’s like, well, why would you want to go through that again?”

Hinton said using AI instead of a real person felt cheap.

“Just lazy, soul-destroying,” she said.

“These internationally run companies, well, the staff on the ground have no say in anything. They’re not on the ground level, they’re not talking to real people, they’re not understanding the needs and wants, they’re just all behind computers, looking at data.”

Project Employ, an organisation that trained neurodiverse New Zealanders and helps them find work, had similar concerns.

Its employment programme lead, Emily Norton, said AI created a barrier for many of the people she works with.

“Anybody who is a little bit outside the box is really disadvantaged. I don’t know exactly what the AI is looking for, but I’m guessing that it’s things like extroversion and eye contact and smiling and being articulate, and all of that’s so hard for our grads,” she said.

‘A slightly perverse situation’

Dr Andrew Lensen, a senior lecturer on AI at Victoria University, said the technology had radically changed the employment process on both sides.

He said jobseekers were using AI to generate their applications, while employers were using AI to read them.

“We sort of ended up in a slightly perverse situation where we have people who write lots of applications with AI and then we have employers who are using AI to screen applications,” he said.

“So you kind of end up with AI screening AI, which is a little bit dystopian, right?”

Lensen said being involved in hiring decisions himself made him understand the need for a human touch.

“More often than not, it’s not until you actually meet someone and talk to them that you get a good sense of, first of all, whether they’re a good fit for the job and whether the job’s a good fit for them, but also how much of what they said on their CV or application is actually true in practice,” he explained.

Woolworths told RNZ it regularly reviewed its tools for bias and offered non-AI alternatives to candidates who requested them.

“We use AI tools to help manage the initial stages of recruitment for some roles, but AI does not make hiring decisions; those are always made by our hiring leaders,” a spokesperson said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Easter egg prices have increased again as the price of chocolate pushes up costs.

A survey of pricing shows a 325g bag of Cadbury marshmallow eggs is now on special for $10 at Woolworths, down from $13.

Last year, it was $8, down from $12. The same pack was $9.90 at Woolworths in 2022, or $6.50 on special.

Cadbury eggs seem now usually include mini eggs rather than chocolate bars.

Last year, these were on special for $9.90 at Woolworths, down from $15, and a pineapple lumps egg was $12. This year, all of the Cadbury gift box eggs are $13, down from $16.50.

Shopping around might help – Pak’n Save had 325g bags of Cadbury marshmallow eggs for $7.99 on Thursday and a pineapple lumps gift box egg for $7.49. A Caramilk gift box egg was $9.79.

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said Easter eggs felt more expensive from a shopper’s perspective.

“Global cocoa prices have come down over the past year, but are still pretty high compared to history,” he said.

“We also tend to see prices for boxed – or fancier – chocolates spiking around this time of year. However, Easter eggs aren’t on sale all year round.

“I still think standard chocolate blocks are the best value – albeit not as much fun as the traditional egg shape. Easter eggs and boxed chocolates typically sell for much higher per unit prices than a standard chocolate block. And the chocolate blocks are often nicer chocolate depending on what you by.”

Otago University’s Murat Ungor said the price increases reflected earlier cocoa price rises.

“Cocoa commodity prices hit their highest levels in nearly 50 years in 2024. Although prices have since fallen by nearly 70 percent from that peak, retail prices have not adjusted as quickly.

“We can point to two economic mechanisms: forward contracting and supply chain lags, and incomplete cost pass-through.

“First, chocolate manufacturers often purchase cocoa months in advance through futures contracts. This means their effective input costs reflect historical prices rather than current spot prices, effectively decoupling retail prices from current market conditions.

“Second, even as cocoa prices have corrected sharply, manufacturers and retailers face no immediate commercial pressure to reduce shelf prices in step. There is a tendency for retail prices to rise quickly when input costs increase, but fall slowly when those costs decline.”

He said there were cost pressures on other ingredients, such as sugar, and the cost of labour had risen, too, which could push up prices.

Stats NZ said in its most recent food price update that a block of chocolate was $6.88 per 250g in February, up 20.3 percent annually.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

News publisher Stuff Group has announced the closure of its Petone printing press and the loss of 30 jobs on site.

Owner and publisher Sinead Boucher told staff on Thursday that the plant would shut down in 2027, with print operations moving to Christchurch.

She said consolidation had been the goal since she bought the company for $1 in 2020 and an active focus of the past two years.

“We had considered various options over that period, however the Christchurch consolidation clearly stood out as best for the business, as it significantly reduces ongoing costs as well as improving operational efficiencies,” she said.

Boucher said the Petone site was bought from Australia’s Nine Media by new owners in November.

“This did not factor into the future of the plant for Stuff, as the Christchurch option was already well advanced.”

She said the lease didn’t expire for another year and consultation with the 30 people employed at the Petone site would take place over the coming weeks and months.

“[We] will be looking for opportunities for redeployment within the business, including at our Christchurch site where we will be adding jobs to accommodate the additional work.”

Boucher said there was a plan underway to decommission the plant.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Exporters are being urged to work closely with their import counterparts over possible Trump tariff refunds, following a decision by the US Supreme Court which ruled the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs unconstitutional.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise hosted a webinar this week to help exporters navigate the implications of last month’s decision.

It comes after the US Court of International Trade determined that the tariffs must be refunded. The US Customs and Border Protection has been working its way through creating a formal refund process since then.

The decision came after US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on 2 April, 2025, as part of a so-called ‘Declaration of Economic Independence’.

US-based legal expert and customs consultant Evelyn Suarez spoke to NZ exporters as part of the webinar, explaining the claims process was still a work in progress and it could be months before the refunds start.

Speaking from Washington DC, her advice to exporters was to be ready and follow the process closely.

“Work with your customers in the United States, they will need your help,” she said. “The obligation really rests with the importer to get their refunds back.”

Export New Zealand executive director Joshua Tan said the court’s decision didn’t order that refunds be paid, but had opened the door for refunds to be claimed.

“It’s the importer of record in the United States who will be refunded the tariff, not the exporter themselves. So unless the exporter is also the importer in the US there is going to be no direct payment of duties paid to a New Zealand export company.

“The process from here and the opportunity for New Zealand exporters is actually just to engage with the importers over in the States – the importers, the distributors, the people who would have actually paid the tariffs themselves – and just sort of talk about how and if those refunds will be passed on.

“It does create a bit of a commercial question here for both parties as to who actually bore the cost of that tariff.”

He said exporters had to be “proactive”.

Felicity Roxburgh, executive director of the New Zealand International Business Forum, said some exporters had paid more than others.

“Some of the sectors were actually exempted in the late stages of the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) tariffs – so beef and kiwifruit were both exempted, so they paid tariffs for a while but not for the whole period that for example the dairy sector has had to pay… because the 15 percent plus existing tariffs have applied to them.”

Roxburgh said there was a lot of detail to be worked out at the individual level as contract arrangements between exporters and US importers varied.

She said while refunds may be difficult to arrange, they would be worth it and “commercially meaningful” for some exporters.

Exporters were looking for practical advice for how to go about being refunded, but expected a “long and complex” process.

“It has increased the difficulty of trading with the US, it has been unwelcomed but at the same time our exports have held up reasonably well.

“I think we can be really proud of how our companies have navigated these challenges and part of that has got to do with the fact we sell these high quality premium products that are desired by US customers.”

Roxburgh said many exporters had “understood and accepted now that tariffs are going to be part of the future for as long as the Trump administration is in charge and probably beyond that as well”.

“My expectation is that exporters are starting to price this into their long-term planning – 10 or 15 percent tariffs or more in some cases.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was not possible to provide a figure for US tariffs paid by New Zealand exporters, as legally it was paid by the importer of record – usually the US importer of New Zealand goods.

They said eligibility to claim a refund would be on a case-by-case basis, depending on a number of considerations – including commercial contracts.

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