Support and information for local businesses in our latest ED update
Published on 14 June 2023
Business Association Support Fund launched
Business Associations around the district met this week to collaborate and share ideas on how they will manage $75,000 for each ward through the Business Association Support Fund.
The $300k fund is through the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment support to our district as part of recovery for local businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Our Council is the administrating body for the Fund, and to access the money each Business Association now needs to develop a programme of work, which will support business recovery efforts for the unique needs of each area’s business communities.
This programme of work could include:
- Undertaking workshops that provide pathways for businesses looking to pivot or hibernate;
- Running programmes that are centred on promoting business recovery and driving economic activity;
- Providing access to psychosocial support for businesses struggling with the challenges that occurred from the weather events throughout Jan/Feb this year.
- Addressing any other relevant need that occurred from the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Thames Business Association is responsible for delivering for the Thames ward.
Enterprise Whangamatā is responsible for delivering for the South Eastern Ward, including Tairua and Pāunaui.
Mercury Bay Business Association is responsible for delivering for the Mercury Bay ward.
A Trust is being finalised, which will be the new Business Association that will deliver for the Coromandel-Colville ward.
Funds will be made available from the Friday 1 July 2023, subject to your work programme being reviewed and signed off by our Council’s Economic Development Team.
Each Business Association responsible for programme delivery, will need to provide a breakdown of budget, outlining your expectations regarding how the funds will be used across the various components of the program.
Business sentiment survey
Coping with weather anxiety or managing mental and emotional stress due to increased operational costs, reduced revenue and general economic uncertainty, while trying to keep staff employed is a major theme that has come through our latest Business Impact Survey - three months since Cyclone Gabrielle struck the district in February.
Results for our April/May Business Impact survey saw 112 businesses from around the Coromandel respond on how they are dealing with recovery.
Some of the key findings:
- 90 per cent had a decrease in sales volumes with 94% expecting further sale volumes to decrease
- 94 per cent reported a decrease in business profits
- Over 75 per cent of respondents have experienced an increase in costs
- 21 per cent of businesses had redundancies/jobs losses and 28 per cent anticipate more
Business owners reported that the ongoing impact from Cyclone Gabrielle, and the disrupted roading network had a flow on effect of having to cancel events, let staff go, along with increases in transportation and supply costs.
However, the most significant challenge reported was the psycho-social impact, with increased mental and emotional stress for business owners and staff.
Download here(PDF, 405KB)
“This is pretty sobering and distressing, and we want to encourage people to reach out to agencies, support services and also local Business Associations to seek help,” says our Mayor Len Salt.
“With money being allocated to local Business Associations, there will be programmes of support developed to help business owners and their staff get through winter and into the New Year,” says Mayor Len. “Further support from the Ministry of Social Development who have on the work brokers on the ground to offer support and solutions has been well received.
“The work being done on the roads is starting to become more visible and will also open up significant opportunities for local businesses as we start to see more construction workers coming through,” says Mayor Len.
“Businesses may also think about how they can "re-tool" for a different way of doing things, maybe different hours and days of opening to make sure these workers are feed and watered.”
There are also many agencies and organisations that offer well being support:
- Free call or text 1737 anytime, 24 hours a day.
- You can also call Lifeline on 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357.
- Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki Hinengaro Line for mental health support - 0508 111 555
- If you have health questions, phone Healthline on 0800 611 116. Healthline is staffed by experienced registered nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Ministry of Social Development support: Call on 0800 400 100. Open 7am–5pm Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm Saturday, and 8am-1pm Sunday.
Meanwhile, you can view results from our first Business Impact survey, which was conducted in Feb/March here.
Rapid rise in new businesses since pandemic’s end
A new report commissioned by our Council shows the number of new businesses in Thames-Coromandel rose rapidly since the end of COVID-19 pandemic through to 2022.
The report was issued in response to a strong appetite in our business community to understand how the pandemic has shaped the entrepreneurial landscape of our local area.
At a national level, it’s known that business start-ups have spiked higher while closures have stayed remarkably low. The question was where our district sit within that landscape?
The report shows that business numbers in Thames-Coromandel rose from 4,374 in 2019 to 4,788 businesses in 2022. Between 2019 and 2022, new businesses added 11.9 per cent to our business stock each year, with business closures sitting at an average of 9.0 per cent per annum over the same period.
Over the three years to 2022, the top five types of businesses for job creation in our District were construction, retail trade, arts and recreation services, professional, scientific and technical services, and health care and social assistance.
At the other end of the spectrum, the industries where business employment suffered the most were accommodation and food services followed by manufacturing. The accommodation and food services job losses stand in stark contrast to the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic when they were the key growth industries.
In 2022 businesses in our district accounted for 10,700 jobs, compared to 2021 when 285 fewer businesses collectively employed more people at 10,800 jobs. The small decline in employment over the past year is due to job shedding among existing businesses, with new businesses still shown to create a steady stream of jobs.
Read report(PDF, 511KB)
Ngāti Maru leads success in youth jobs programme
The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs Community Resilience Programme, a youth employment programme, funded by the Ministry of Social Development, has been piloted in our district this year. It has been such a success that additional funding for similar initiatives has now been allocated to our Council.
Thames iwi Ngāti Maru led the pilot programme, in partnership with our Council, which prepared rangatahi for placement into sustainable employment in our local area.
Their successful roll-out of the pilot over six months (from January – June 2023) saw 16 young people secure employment across a range of Thames-Coromandel businesses.
“Ngāti Maru have done an outstanding job to make such immediate and meaningful use of the initial funding allocation,” says our Mayor Len Salt. “They’ve been an amazing partner who took up this opportunity to be part of the initial pilot and we look forward to discussing how we can expand and extend the model they’ve developed to support rangitahi around our district,” says Mayor Len.
“Thanks to all the participating businesses for making the time and effort to take new young workers on board during such an intense year of challenges,” says Mayor Len.
“We’re looking forward to working with a wider group of businesses to understand how an additional employment programme might best meet their labour requirements,” he says.
Thames employer Aaron Turoa, who runs Fire Protection Contractors, has taken on three full-time employees as a result of the pilot scheme. He says he has no hesitation recommending other businesses take part.
“This initiative was a way to get new workers in the door at a time when our industry is desperately short of staff. We were matched with young people who show up and are keen to work. The support we got through the scheme to get them trained up in the skills we need was really key.”
In total, the nation-wide Mayors Taskforce for Jobs Community Employment Programme has received $18 million over the next two years, after securing multi-year funding from Ministry of Social Development in this year’s budget announcement.
It hasn’t yet been confirmed how much additional funding will be allocated to our council, but it’s expected to be sufficient to allow for an expanded employment programme across the district for the next twelve months.
About Mayors Taskforce for Jobs
The Mayors Taskforce For Jobs (MTFJ) is a nationwide network of New Zealand’s Mayors, working together towards the vision of all young people under 25 being engaged in appropriate education, training, work or other positive activity in their communities.
MTFJ runs advocacy projects and aims to partner with best-practice organisations to promote the economic well-being of young people.
Find out more
Shifting seafood industry toward growth
A report commissioned by Tātaki Auckland Unlimited shows there are opportunities for our district and Auckland regions to work together more closely to take advantage of domestic and global seafood market opportunities.
TAU instigated a research project in 2021 as a direct response to Auckland food and beverage businesses which continued to face uncertainty after the pandemic and were looking for new pathways towards growth.
Through academic research and interviews with key industry stakeholders, the project found a clear need for businesses to create more innovative models and value-add products to survive and meet the global demand for New Zealand-made products.
It focused in part on sustainable seafood innovation, including mussels, seaweed, and other prospects for developing value-add products.
It found mussel farming in New Zealand is currently below capacity due to warming waters, increased shipping rates, potential over-supply, and lack of labour. Various industry sources identified a significant need to focus on the value-added sector to reduce the reliance on commodity prices.
The report identified an opportunity to develop value-added products if processing facilities were developed in our district and linked with Clevedon and Onehunga. It outlined a strategy linking the Onehunga Wharf with the developments at Kōpū and Te Ariki Tahi/Sugarloaf wharves.
Overall, the investigation supports a strategic shift for the seafood industry from a state of regional fragmentation to a state of regional cohesion. By working together, it found, the Coromandel and Auckland regions have an immense opportunity to set themselves apart from the rest of New Zealand, and global seafood communities in general, if they adopt a strong focus on high-value, high quality seafood that tells a uniquely New Zealand story.
Read report(PDF, 5MB)
Premium Seas scoops market innovator award
One local Coromandel Town company which is already setting the value-add example is Premium Seas, which took out the Market Innovator Award at the New Zealand Seafood Sustainability Awards this year.
The winners of the 2023 awards were announced at Parliament in Wellington on 6 June.
Premium Seas is a champion of New Zealand seaweeds and premium seaweed products. By harvesting Undaria pinnatifida from local Coromandel Harbour waters, it has developed innovative solutions to process seaweed for food.
The company is passionate about the environmental, economic, and social benefits to be realised from the emerging seaweed farming sector. Using expertise from Japan and a highly engaged network of chefs, it has collaborated with local butchers to produce an award-winning pork and wakame sausage, and also with Coromandel Pies, who now produce a premium mussel and wakame pie.
The award is a fantastic achievement for Lucas Evans and the whole team at Premium Seas.
Our Road to Recovery: Progress on SH25A and our Recovery Plan
We are continuing to focus on repairing infrastructure, while providing support to businesses and communities to recover and plan for the future. Below are our key updates from around the region.
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Looking to take your event to the next level, or start a new event?
Applications for The Hauraki Coromandel 2023/2024 Regional Event Fund (REF) are due to open early July.
The REF is a seed fund to help new and existing events build long-term sustainable platforms and growth. The purpose of the fund is to stimulate ‘out of region’ visitation by supporting events that attract increased expenditure in the region. Destination Hauraki Coromandel aims to build a stronger calendar of events that will collectively showcase the essence of The Coromandel while stimulating and enhancing the economic wellbeing of the region and providing significant flow-on benefits to tourism businesses (which includes the retail and hospitality sectors) in The Coromandel.
All events will need to show that they have a clear plan and pathway to attract out of region visitors and not simply leverage this audience while already in the region. They must also make a commitment to local environmental protection actions.
For further information in the meantime, click here or contact megan@thecoromandel.com
Make sure your business is optimised and visible
The official Hauraki Coromandel regional website is Destination Hauraki Coromandel's largest and most important marketing asset - a platform through which it aims to inspire and connect visitors with every corner of our region to plan their visit. It is rich in content and has listings from many of our businesses, providing a one-stop site for visitors.
Read more
Kōpū Marine Servicing and Business Precinct update
Work on the Kōpū Marine Business Precinct is progressing well, with firmer than expected ground conditions facilitating the siting of piles. The rock revetment is nearly 90 per cent complete with over 200 metres constructed.
The first sheet piles have been installed, forming the cofferdam around the recreational boat ramp area. The construction of the recreational boat ramp will commence after King’s Birthday Weekend. All six boat ramp pontoons and the large wharf pontoon have been built and are being stored in Whangārei.
More here