Business

The New Zealand Cruise Association has launched a national strategy for the first time. Photo: Supplied The cruise industry wants to get more value out of fewer ships by building more tourism experiences on land and getting more locally grown goods on board. The New Zealand Cruise Association has launched a national strategy for the first time. It is aimed at managing the sector and growing its annual economic contribution to $1b by 2040. Covid-19 hit the cruise industry hard and now increased costs and global competition means a 15 to 20 percent reduction in ship visits is expected for the next two seasons. Chief executive Jacqui Lloyd said the sector wants to work more closely with local and central government and tourism operators to grow cruise business. "When we're talking about a ...

Photo: RNZ Tax cuts have taken effect, though you may still have a little wait before you see the impact in your bank account, depending on your pay cycle. The amount on offer varies depending on your income level. A single pensioner is set to get $4.31 a fortnight. Someone on $70,000 is in line for $30.75. Someone on $110,000 is set to get just over $40 a fortnight. But what might you do with that extra money? We've run the numbers based on a $20-per-week tax cut, to have a look at some of the options. Pay off your mortgage faster Any extra you can pay off your home loan will have an impact, because it goes straight on to the principal. If you have a home loan with $500,000 left and 20 years to pay, with a 6.85 percent interest rate, and can now pay an extra $20 a week in repayments, yo...

Ingka Investments - the parent company of furniture giant IKEA - has bought Waikareao Station. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King A renowned Hawke's Bay sheep, beef and deer station which sustained significant damage during Cyclone Gabrielle will be planted into rotational forestry. Ingka Investments - the parent company of furniture giant IKEA - has bought Waikareao Station just east of Waipukurau for $13,025,000. Advertised on the local market as a renowned breeding and finishing station, the farm covers just over 1000 hectares. The Overseas Investment Office has given approval for Ingka Investments to buy the farm. It plans to continue the existing 45 hectares of forestry operations, and plant production forest on the land currently used for pastoral farming. In 2019, a past owner par...

Newshub, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, shut down operations last month. Photo: Screenshot / Newshub The owner of New Zealand television channel Three posted a hefty loss last year, as advertising revenue fell sharply and as it wrote down the value of assets. Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand (WBD), which owned television channels Three, Bravo Eden and Rush, and online platform Three Now, revealed a $138.2 million after-tax loss for the 12 months ended December 2023, compared to a $34.9m loss in 2022. Revenue fell 17 percent to $131.9m, with advertising income falling by $23.4m in what was a challenging period for all commercial media players in New Zealand. The results also included a $79.5m accounting write down in the value of its assets. WBD announced the closure of its news oper...

The Grocery Commisioner sent a message to the Woolworths and Foodstuffs in April about fair treatment and negotiation of supply contracts. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi, Simon Rogers The Grocery Commissioner says one of the key measures to improve competition in the grocery market isn't working properly. Pierre van Heerden has started a review of the Grocery Supply Code, which only came into force last September and is aimed at improving the relationship between the two big chains and suppliers. He said there are reports suppliers are concerned about how they are being treated by Woolworths and Foodstuffs. "Some of the signs I am seeing is that suppliers are very fearful of repercussion, there's a lack of trust." Pierre van Heerden. Photo: "The grocery agreements that were sent out...

Photo: 123RF Around half of New Zealanders feel they aren't making the most of their money due to a lack of financial knowledge. New research by Partners Life shows many people struggle to pay their monthly expenses and lose sleep over money. It found three-quarters think financial literacy is important during a cost of living crisis. The insurance firm has partnered with financial educator Banqer to offer a free two-week course in personal finance in August. Banqer chief executive Simon Brown said the high cost of living was putting pressure on people and growing confidence around money matters would help. "I think underpinning that is a sort of taboo around talking about money and talking about personal finances. From my perspective, we're not having enough conversations around kitchen...

There were 383 business liquidationa in Auckland in the second quarter of this year, compared to 56 in Wellington, 118 in the rest of the North Island, and 61 in Canterbury. (file image) Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Auckland businesses are bearing the brunt of the current downturn, new data suggests. Centrix data shows the number of business liquidations is increasing in all regions, but most sharply in Auckland, where there were 383 in the second quarter of this year, compared to 56 in Wellington, 118 in the rest of the North Island, and 61 in Canterbury. That equates to about 1.8 business closures per 1000 business in Auckland, well ahead of the rate of less than one per 1000 being recorded in Wellington. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub said that rate was likely to get worse. "This is...

The Verkerks brand markets salamis and small goods into many New Zealand supermarkets. File picture Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Small goods meat business Verkerks is selling its Mid-Canterbury abattoir to a large Japanese meat company for $15 million. New Zealand-based Japanese subsidiary SFJ Holdings was granted approval by the Overseas Investment Office to acquire the company's meat processing plant in Ashburton in June - under the Benefit to New Zealand test. The pending multi-million dollar sale would include 37 hectares of land for meat processing and all shares to Ashburton Meat Processors, owned by Verkerks. The well-known Verkerks brand markets salamis and small goods into many New Zealand supermarkets - and its founder Aalt Verkerk started the company, officially named A...

An investigation into the collapse of a power pylon in Northland that cut power to most of the region has found contractor error was to blame. Omexom was carrying out routine maintenance to the baseplate of Tower 130, a Transpower transmission tower servicing 100,000 properties, when the pylon fell on 20 June. The report, released on Thursday morning, said a relatively inexperienced and inadequately supervised worker removed nuts from three of the four legs of the pylon, compromising its stability and causing it to rupture and fall. And it was not the first time nuts and washers were removed from more than one leg of a pylon at once, which did not align with the contractor's own standard practice. At the time the government called it "completely unacceptable" with the cost of the widesprea...

A large power pylon has come down. Photo: Supplied / Top Energy A full investigation into how a Northland power pylon fell over causing widespread electricity outages has confirmed insufficient supervision of an inexperience worker resulted in too many bolts being removed. There have been calls for compensation following the June outage which one economist predicted cost the Northland economy $60m. Initial reports found too many nuts were removed from bolts during routine maintenance by Omexom on the transmission tower and its baseplate near Glorit, north of Auckland. An independent investigation, released Thursday morning, concluded that was the case. "Standard practice, taught to its civil works field staff, was to remove all nuts from only one tower foundation leg at a time," it said...