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Christmas shopping in Wellington before the pandemic. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King The government caused Wellington's retail woes and forcing public service workers back to the office is not going to fix them, a union leader says. Public Service Minister Nicola Willis on Monday said she had directed department bosses to tighten up on working-from-home arrangements - that they should only be by agreement, not compromise performance, and departments and agencies must regularly report on the number and nature of agreements in place. Willis said "if the pendulum swings too far in favour of working from home, there are downsides" for CBD retailers, restaurants and cafes. A number of outlets have closed in recent times, and those still open reporting empty streets and fewer customers tha...

McDonald's says its main feedback from customers is how popular the promotion has been. Photo: 123rf A lack of transparency and questionable prize value might be turning some people off McDonald's Monopoly promotion, one marketing expert says. McDonald's has been running the Monopoly game for 10 years. It offers customers tickets when they buy certain items, which can win instant prizes or be saved for "collect to win" prizes. But some customers have complained that the prizes are not as generous as they first appear. For example, a Mixbook $20 voucher can't be used with any other discount on the photobook site, which is currently offering a sale of up to 50 percent off. Three months of membership to Amazon Prime, for which there are 400,000 prizes available, requires people not to alre...

Local eateries and takeaway businesses were bucking the trend, the Restaurant Association said, Photo: 123rf Takeaways and local eateries are bucking the downward trend as the cost of living crisis causes a big fall in revenue for restaurants. A report by the Restaurant Association revealed 76 percent of its members had worse or significantly worse profitability compared to the same period last year. The takeaway sector, however, showed a 4.2 percent increase in year-on-year sales during the second quarter of 2024. Other businesses to defy the odds were neighbournood eateries with 24 percent of respondents stating income was on par with or up on the previous year. Annual sales revenue of was $15.7 billion for the year ending March, a 5.8 percent increase on the previous year. The Associ...

Tower Insurance bulding at 45 Queen Street, Auckland Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook New Zealand insurance company Tower has renewed its reinsurance package with increased cover at lower cost for the coming year. The company said it had secured cover for all its major businesses for home, motor, boat and commercial for its New Zealand and Pacific customers at favourable rates. "Tower's focus on risk-based pricing combined with our dynamic rating ability helped us secure favourable terms for our FY25 (financial year) reinsurance," chief financial officer Paul Johnston said. "We've further strengthened relationships with global reinsurers, with several agreeing to new multi-year arrangements, which provides greater long-term certainty of reinsurance costs and catastrophe excesses." Reinsurance is t...

Fletcher Building chief executive Andrew Reding. Photo: Supplied Fletcher Building has announced it will raise $700 million to pay back debt and improve it's financial stability. The troubled building products and construction company is struggling with poor demand as house sales are down. It is looking to raise $282m from investment funds and $418m from current shareholders. It went into a trading halt on the stock exchange to do so. In addition to money raising Fletcher Building plans to cut around $180m in costs to better the books. Shares in the company were $2.40 each on Monday morning, a 13 percent discount from market close on Friday. Source link