Business

Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Air New Zealand is cutting back capacity on three domestic routes by flying smaller planes or flying fewer times a day. This comes after Monday's announcement that the airline would cut flights between Invercargill and Wellington from January next year. It is now changing the aircraft for two routes from a 171-seat Airbus A320 jet to a 68-seat ATR-72, a reduction of 100 seats, citing a decrease in customer demand. Queenstown to Christchurch The smaller plane will be used for the first flight of the morning from Queenstown to Christchurch. It will also depart later - just before 9am. The Queenstown to Auckland jet service will be increased by two more services a week. Dunedin to Wellington Flights from Dunedin to Wellington will also now operate using the small...

By Chris Keall of Curtis Bailey - the West Auckland electrician who founded Tradify after finding he was spending too much time on admin. He owns 9% of the firm ahead of the $100m-plus deal. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Herald Curtis Bailey, who left school for an apprenticeship at a small electrical engineering company in South Auckland, is in line for a $9 million-plus payday. UK firm The Access Group has entered an agreement to buy Tradify, the firm Bailey created in 2010 after becoming frustrated there was no app for tradies to manage and book jobs. The price is confidential, but the deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval, implying it sits above the regulator's $100 million threshold. The Access Group, based in the Midlands and backed by a compl...

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone New Zealand blueberry growers have the green light to enter the South Korean market for the first time. Minister for Trade and Agriculture Todd McClay has unveiled the long-awaited duty free agreement, with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) working behind the scenes to gain biosecurity sign off. Blueberries New Zealand chief executive Kelvin Bezuidenhout said growers expected positive spin-offs and a good deal of competition from local producers and rival southern hemisphere exporters. "We know there are good opportunities for our window," Bezuidenhout said. "There are not sufficient blueberries for them to supply their market all year so it's really up to us to exploit the opportunity we have been given." New Zealand sells about 80 percent of its ex...

Photo: RNZ A growing number of commentators are calling for the Reserve Bank to cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points next week - and for rates to come down much faster than previously predicted. Kiwibank, ASB and HSBC now say a 50 basis points cut is likely in October - and BNZ expects one in November. Westpac and ASB then expect another 50bps cut in November, and Kiwibank expects one in February. "I'm calling quite strongly for two 50s," Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said. "Businesses and households need rates to keep falling, they need the Reserve Bank to maintain momentum. "The only way it can do that is to deliver 50 - the market has pretty much got that fully priced in now, if they don't there's going to be a spike in wholesale rates." Kiwibank chief economist Jar...

ChargeNet operates more than 400 charging stations nationwide. Photo: AFP Power company Genesis Energy is planning to pump money into ChargeNet to speed up the growth of its nationwide electric vehicle charging network. Genesis has taken a 65 percent stake in the network for $64 million, as it looks for new income sources. ChargeNet operates more than 400 public fast-charging points across the country and chief executive Danusia Wypych said the new deal will help build more ports faster. "The Genesis investment gives us core investment into our site delivery program. So. putting more chargers in the ground. If I look back on a 12 month period under our current program, I'd be putting in maybe up to 150 charge points with the Genesis investment I can put in over 270 charge points per ann...

The decision to decline the Foodstuffs merger could mean higher prices in the near future. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Kim Moodie The Commerce Commission's decision not to allow a planned merger of Foodstuffs' North Island and South Island divisions could be bad news for shoppers - at least initially. The commission said on Tuesday it was declining the proposal because it would substantially lessen competition. Chair John Small said it would reduce the number of buyers of grocery products in New Zealand, and give them more power to extract lower prices from suppliers. University of Auckland emeritus professor Timothy Hazledine said, while the decision to decline the merger was the right one, in the very near future it could mean higher prices. "They've still go to compete with each other w...

By Lisa M Katerina and Drew Franklin of Multiple submissions to the Commerce Commission claimed Foodstuffs' unwillingness to compete with each other demonstrated a worrying precedent. Photo: 123RF Analysis: Two of the dominant players in New Zealand's supermarket sector - Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island - have failed in their quest to officially join forces. In a decision announced on Monday, the Commerce Commission declined to green-light the merger between the two cooperatives. The watchdog said it was not satisfied the move wouldn't result in reducing competition in the New Zealand grocery sector. But it needs to go further. Instead of adjudicating on a merger, the commission should be given the power to break up the two Foodstuffs entities t...

The cost of the new Dunedin Hospital could hit as much as $3 billion. Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton Problems with Dunedin Hospital highlight that New Zealand needs to develop a more mature approach to large, important projects, Infrastructure New Zealand says. Plans for the new hospital have been thrown into doubt by government revelations last week that a report had found it could probably not be delivered in the current $1.88 billion budget. Health Minister Shane Reti and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said it would need to be reduced, or done in stages, or the cost could hit $3b. In 2017, it was estimated the build would cost $1.2b to $1.4b. Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said on as cost-per-metre basis, it would be the costliest hospital in Australasia. "We ...

While the rental market has softened, commentators say it is unlikely that the return of deductibility is the driver. File photo. Photo: Unsplash / Tom Rumble New Zealand's rental market is cooling - but how much of that is due to the return of interest deductibility for investors? In March, prime minister Christopher Luxon said renters would be "grateful" that extra costs would no longer be passed on to them after the government moved to phase back in investors' ability to claim loan interest costs against their rental income for tax purposes - reducing the amount of tax they pay. Act Party leader and associate finance minister David Seymour said at the time the pressure on landlords from the Labour government's removal of deductibility was reducing the number of rentals and pushing re...

Property coach Steve Goodey says the market has "most definitely" bottomed out. File photo. Photo: RNZ / 123rf Property coach Steve Goodey says the time is right to buy a house - but not everyone is as convinced. Goodey asked his social media followers this week what they were waiting for. "I can get 5.59 percent for three years even if the floating rate is still in the 8s. "Auckland house prices are by average now under $1 million for the first time since 2020… Mortgage brokers round the country are recording a massive upswing in activity with investors and first-home buyers alike getting pre-approvals. "Daylight saving has started giving agents more sunlight and evening open homes. So what indicator or metric are you waiting for to get stuck in? Will you wait for two more OCR reductio...