Business

By Ian Verrender, ABC chief business correspondent Photo: RNZ Analysis - You have to hand it to the Kiwis. For such a tiny nation, stuck at the bottom of the South Pacific, it's a country that punches well above its weight. Take last Saturday night, for example, when the All Blacks yet again walloped the Wallabies in Wellington, keeping the elusive Bledisloe Cup locked away in the NZRU trophy cabinet. For Australia, it's been a 22-year drought. It's not just sport. A range of musicians, writers, filmmakers, artists and actors from the Land of the Long White Cloud strut the world stage. But there's another, perhaps more arcane, area where New Zealand has made the rest of the world sit up and take notice. When it comes to central banks, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is somet...

Gisborne businesses are struggling, with many on the brink of closure. Shop owners told RNZ they have seen a huge reduction in the number of people in their stores, which is being driven by several factors including a decline in forestry and lower export prices for meat and timber. There have been job losses, with unemployment rising 1.2 percent and the region's GDP falling by 0.3 percent. Even though Gisborne's construction consents are up 40.8 percent due to the cyclone rebuild, its residents say the money is not evident in the local economy Forestry makes up 32 percent of the region's tradeable activity, but forestry harvesting has already ground to a halt in some areas of Tairawhiti - part of the fallout after the district was hit by devastating cyclones Hale and Gabrielle last year. ...

Photo: Google Maps Energy production could return to Marsden Point, with the operator of the fuel import terminal signing a conditional agreement to develop a biorefinery at the site. Channel Infrastructure said the agreement with Seadra Energy and a consortium of partners, meant the proposed biorefinery could become an anchor tenant for the Marsden Point precinct, with Channel selling a number of former refinery assets and leasing out land. The consortium included Qantas, Renova Inc, Kent Plc and ANZ. A biorefinery typically converts biomass into biofuels, biochemicals and energy, similar to an oil refinery, but using renewable biological materials. Seadra had initially signed a deal to buy decommissioned hydrocracking assets from Channel for US$33.88 million last year, with the intenti...

Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers The Commerce Commission has declined Foodstuffs' proposal to merge its North Island and South Island divisions. Earlier this year the country's biggest supermarket operator proposed agreed to bring the divisions together to create a national co-operative. The boards of Foodstuffs North and South Island divisions currently operate separately and run a number of well-known brands including New World, Pak'nSave and Four Square. On Tuesday, the Commerce Commission declined the proposal saying it would substantially lessen competition. In a statement, chair Dr John Small said it would reduce the number of buyers of grocery products in New Zealand from three to two giving it greater buying power. "As a consequence of the substantial lessening of competition and the as...

Fletcher Building's share price has fallen from $8 to less than $3 in the past decade. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly It might be one of the country's biggest companies, but Craigs Investment Partners has not had Fletcher Building among its recommended portfolios for the past decade, and that has served the investment firm well. A series of unfortunate events, and the cyclical nature of the business, have meant its share price has fallen from about $8 a decade ago to $2.95 this week. So what went wrong for Fletcher, and will its new chief executive and recently completed capital raise help turn it around? A number of significant events have damaged the company in recent years. It has been involved in a dispute over leaking pipes in Western Australia, installed between 20...

The construction, hospitality and transport sectors are twice as likely to be placed in liquidation. File photo. Photo: 123rf The number of company liquidations has soared, as businesses struggle to stay afloat in a slowing economy. The latest monthly report from credit bureau Centrix shows liquidations are up 19 percent year-on-year, and business credit defaults up 5 percent. Construction, hospitality and transport businesses appear to be the hardest hit, as consumers and businesses pull back on spending. That is despite an improvement in business and consumer sentiment in recent months. Centrix managing director Keith McLaughlin said the trend of difficulty for businesses often followed that of consumers. "The cost of running a business has gone up and to counter that, consumers haven...

The number of people withdrawing money from KiwiSaver for financial hardship reasons has almost doubled in a year. File photo. Photo: 123rf Large numbers of New Zealanders continue to withdraw money from KiwiSaver for financial hardship reasons. More than 4200 members withdrew money for this reason in August, up from 2760 in August last year. But how do you make a financial hardship withdrawal, how long does it take, and what might get you turned down? What can you claim for? KiwiSaver members can apply for withdrawal for hardship reasons in fairly limited circumstances. You can apply if you cannot pay your minimum living expenses - such as power, water and food bills, if you can't keep up with your mortgage or rent, if you need to modify your home to meet special needs, or if you need ...

A Boeing Dreamliner 787-9, from the Air New Zealand fleet. Photo: Supplied/ Air NZ Air New Zealand has confirmed it is canning direct flights from Invercargill to Wellington from January next year, with people travelling from the deep south having to go through Christchurch. It said tough economic times meant domestic demand had softened, particularly in the regions, and combined with having an aircraft out of service due to global engine maintenance issues, it had to make the tough decision to cancel the direct Invercargill to Wellington service. Invercargill Licensing Trust chief executive Chris Ramsay runs 23 different establishments, and is expecting to host thousands of visitors to Invercargill next year. He told Checkpoint Air New Zealand is putting profit ahead of its social resp...

Alliance Group's Smithfield meat processing plant, Timaru. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown A group that represents the owners of New Zealand's commercial plantation forests disputes that forestry is one the reasons behind the proposed closure of the Smithfield meatworks. Alliance Group told staff on Friday it planned to fully close its meat processing plant in Timaru, with Federated Farmers saying land use change was to blame, with farms being converted into carbon forests at alarming rates. The New Zealand Forest Owners Association said the area of production forestry across the country had decreased in the last 20 years, but Beef + Lamb New Zealand said focusing on total forestry area overlooked the impact of recent land-use change on the sector. Statistics from Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Fore...

Photo: 123rf.com Advertised salaries are growing at a slower pace due to strong competition for a limited number of jobs, new data shows. Employment website SEEK has found average advertised salaries grew 3.7 percent in the year ended August, down from 4.4 percent in the previous quarter. SEEK country manager Rob Clark said with more people applying for fewer jobs, the rule of supply and demand was holding back salary increases. "If you're an employer you've got more choice and therefore that allows you to have more flexibility on salary rates. And if you're an employee and you're looking for work, it's more competitive out there, so you might be prepared to forego the salary that you may have hoped [for] previously." The education and healthcare sectors recorded the greatest growth yea...