SMEs facing the perfect storm, amid the lockdown extension. Photo / 123RF
SMEs facing the perfect storm, amid the lockdown extension. Photo / 123RF
As the Government extends the national lockdown until at least midnight Tuesday, a not-for-profit organisation is pushing the importance to support the local business.
Buy New Zealand Made campaign executive director Dane Ambler said he supported the Government's decision to extend the lockdown, but businesses across the country are bracing for significant disruption.
"[They] are facing a perfect storm of a skills shortage, increased shipping costs and delays, and now Covid in the community.
"While it's encouraging to see the Government once again roll out support like the wage subsidy scheme, resurgence support payment, the leave support scheme and short-term absence payment, what businesses really need is cash flowing through the till," he said.
Buy NZ Made campaign is a not-for-profit organisation that supports locals by licensing out the Buy New Zealand Made trademark.
It gives the producers the market origin advantage which helps the customers differentiate between Kiwi-made products.
Of 1400 members of Buy NZ, more than 230 are exporters, giving all the members the advantage of their product being visible as a Kiwi-made, both in New Zealand and overseas, he said.
The organisation is urging people to shop online from food and beverage companies, buy vouchers or place an order that can be shipped when the country moves down alert levels.
"Even picking up the phone for a chat might be the support local businesses need.
"Once we do move down alert levels, Kiwis should be out in force to help local business make up for lost time. Getting from level 4 to Level 3 will be an important step that will allow some of these businesses to reopen," Ambler said.
Buy NZ Made has launched a page for New Zealand Made face masks and is encouraging people to sign up to ShopKiwi for free.
New research from small business accounting firm MYOB showed that before the latest lockdown 19 per cent of the small business enterprise (SME) would be under extreme pressure while 26 per cent of them will have quite a lot of pressure in alert levels 3 or 4.
Forty-two per cent of the business would have a "significant loss of productivity" while 38 per cent of the business would seek financial assistance to cover expenses and overheads.
About 15 per cent of SME would reduce the number of staff, while 28 per cent would delay their business growth and 15 per cent said they would have to assess the viability of the business, the research revealed.
The report said only 13 per cent of the business were "very confident" in financial support from the government during the lockdown, while 28 per cent were neither "confident or unconfident".
Thirteen per cent said they were "very unconfident".
During a community outbreak, 32 per cent of the SMEs said they preferred localised or region-specific lockdown at alert level 3 or 4, whereas 13 per cent wanted no such lockdowns at all.
The MYOB research was conducted between July 6 and 16.
