April/May 2020 - BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS

12 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2020
SPECIAL FOCUS – COVID-19
Looking to the longer-term recovery
Covid-19 is an extraordinary situation that
has shocked the world’s economy. There
is a lot of anxiety amongst the business
community because businesses like certainty
and there are a lot of uncertainties as the
situation is constantly changing.
COMMENT
By MATT COWLEY
Many tourism, venues,
and entertainment operators
had the rug
pulled from underneath them
on with bookings immediately
cancelled. Tourism operators
who are reliant on cruise passengers
have already made
up to 90 percent of their staff
redundant. Tourism is at the
coal face of border restrictions,
and the tourism economy is
our biggest export earner and
impacts many businesses in a
variety of ways.
Businesses are having to
quickly change the way they
operate. Some businesses have
too many staff for their declining
sales, while other businesses
have a massive shortage
of staff (e.g. supermarkets, deliveries,
kiwifruit, the banking
sector).
Businesses can also have
anxiety as they may have significant
mortgages after recent
capital expansion in anticipation
of growth. This was an
economic black swan event
that has taken the world by surprise.
Few people anticipated
it would reach these levels of
economic restrictions.
Exports still moving
The economic lifelines are that
our local exporters are still getting
their shipments to overseas
markets.
Our government has also
invested wisely, following the
economic disruptions over the
past two decades.
The Reserve Bank of NZ
also has a lot of tools in its
arsenal, and they are working
with NZ’s banks, who are
self-interested in having the
economy moving again.
The Tauranga Chamber is
working with Tourism BOP,
Priority One and other business
associations to help connect
people and encourage locals to
continue to support local businesses.
It is in everyone’s best
interests to have as many people
employed and in business
as possible to keep cash moving
through our local economy.
We are encouraging local
residents to support local
businesses by either ordering
online or having kerbside pickups.
We are also encouraging
locals to buy gift cards to use
at a later date as well as sharing
and supporting their favourite
local business on social media.
The Chamber is also looking
to use our different networks
to help promote people
to visit local businesses during
the recovery.
It is challenging for businesses
to ramp down their
business at short notice. But it
will also be a challenge to ramp
it back up quickly once the recovery
has begun.
The Chamber’s business
advisors are on hand to offer
Matt Cowley is the chief
executive of the Chamber of
Commerce Tauranga Region
Inc.
help to businesses during the
initial downturn, as well as
during the long-term recovery.
(NB: the one month lockdown
kicked in just as BOP
Business News went to print)
The Tauranga Chamber
of Commerce is expanding
its resources to
help businesses affected by
Covid-19. Additional funding
has been provided by the
government to the Regional
Business Partnership Network
(RBP) nationwide.
The Bay of Plenty region
received funding for
an additional three full-time
Growth Advisors to support
businesses, boosting the existing
four advisors already
New Zealand’s kiwifruit harvest has begun to move to overseas markets. Photo/Zespri.
Increased support is available
working here. The advisors
are being shared across Tauranga
Chamber of Commerce,
Eastern Bay of Plenty
Chamber of Commerce and
Rotorua Business Chamber,
as well as Poutama Trust,
which will receive a Growth
Advisor to boost support for
Māori business networks and
owners.
Businesses can contact
the Biz Hub helpline to arrange
a meeting (one-to-one
or digitally), free of charge,
with one of the Growth Advisors
to discuss how they are
affected by COVID-19 and
what support they need.
Tauranga Chamber of
Commerce chief executive
Matt Cowley said there was so
much information available it
could be overwhelming.
“We want the business
community to know they
have somewhere to turn to for
guidance and that they can
walk away from their session
with a Growth Advisor with
a renewed level of confidence
and support.”
If you are a business
based in the Western Bay of
Plenty, and you want to gain
free business support from
a Growth Advisor, please
contact the Tauranga Chamber
of Commerce on info@
tauranga.org.nz or 0800 BIZ
HUB (0800 249 482).
If you are a business based
in Eastern or Central Bay of
Plenty, please contact 07 346
3657.
Positivity and good information crucial
March has certainly been interesting month.
In the Bay we’ve gone from being flat out,
with concerns about how we’ll cope with
growth, to staring at an impending recession.
COMMENT
By NIGEL TUTT
The speed of the Covid-
19 crisis and associated
economic downturn has
been rapid.
It’s very hard to see how
long and severe a downturn
might be. Media and economists
tend to favour the more
negative end of the spectrum.
Adopting a local view is important
alongside understanding
the national and global
impacts.
In the Western Bay, we
came into this downturn in
pretty good shape. Our economy
was probably the strongest
in New Zealand, with low
unemployment, rising income
levels and strong business and
economic growth.
Covid-19 has had some immediate
and strong effects on
our local businesses, particularly
tourism and hospitality
– due to border controls and
social distancing. The effect
on some of these businesses
has unfortunately been severe
and will get much worse now
we are going into community
lockdown
While it is troubling and
very uncertain, this situation
feels different than our last recession,
the Global Financial
Crisis. Right now we’re dealing
with the effects of a health
crisis and its associated economic
fallout.
The economy should
spring back
The structure of the world
economy is in a very different
place to what led to the GFC.
When the health crisis is eventually
solved or mitigated, the
economy should be able to
spring back.
We are also fortunate that
the New Zealand economy
is in good shape to combat
the economic effects of this
problem.
On the flipside, the lockdown
could create economic
damage of a level we haven’t
seen before, and we don’t
know how long the after-effects
of that would last.
In the Western Bay we
are so far fortunate that our
Positivity is important in these times, as
well as good information, so let’s try to keep
a good perspective on the situation in the
coming months.”
key industries (construction,
distribution / logistics, manufacturing,
healthcare and horticulture)
are not structurally
affected right now.
While businesses in these
sectors have concerns, in general
the fundamentals remain
stable.
Markets remain open for
Nigel Tutt is the chief executive
of Tauranga EDA Priority
One
our exported goods and trading
conditions at the time of
writing are close to normal for
most businesses.
While I’ve painted a picture
that’s perhaps not as bad as we
see in mainstream media, there
are certainly big risks ahead of
us: labour supply will likely
be a problem in horticulture
(although that may be good if
workers from other industries
need employment), we would
be at risk if access to markets
for our exports was restricted,
and consumer / business confidence
will be reduced, which
will have an effect on demand
for most industries.
The ability to get people to
and from productive work will
be a big determinant of economic
outcomes.
So while this is a shock and
a very difficult time for some,
it doesn’t look like the end of
the world yet. Positivity is important
in these times, as well
as good information, so let’s
try to keep a good perspective
on the situation in the coming
months.