Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Business

Hawke's Bay firms say confidence up

By PATRICK O'SULLIVAN - Business Reporter
Hawkes Bay Today·
7 Jul, 2011 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

Hawke's Bay businesses showed an upswing in business confidence according to the latest New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZEIR) Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion.
In the second quarter of 2011, 24 per cent of Hawke's Bay respondents said they had an improved business situation, reversing the 26 per cent decline
in the previous quarter.
Napier economic consultant Sean Bevin said the swing was a good sign but the next quarter's results would confirm if a corner had been turned for the local economy.
Mr Bevin said the 26 per cent increase in proposed investment for the next quarter in plant in machinery was heartening but that profitability, consistently falling since 2008, was a concern.
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas said concerns about expanding sales were a recurring feature in the survey and businesses overall were still concerned about profitability, which continued to fall back. Profitability was anticipated to fall in the next quarter by 29 per cent of respondents.
"Hawke's Bay business needs to address some structural problems which these surveys show have existed for a very long time" Mr Douglas said.
"Average business costs increased significantly overall during the last quarter, a situation that has prevailed in the region since early 1999 and the situation is expected to continue over the next three months. A similar trend applies for average selling prices. Further there is again a worrying difficulty in recruiting for skilled labour needs, this is likely to increase as the economy rebounds."
"Labour supply and demand especially skilled labour is a matter likely to be addressed by the chamber through the Business Hawke's Bay agency along with simply growing and deepening the Hawke's Bay economic base to ensure we have more consistent trading," he said.
Both Mr Bevin and Mr Douglas said the NZEIR survey was a good indicator of business health. It has been held since 1987 and regularly changes those surveyed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save
    Share this article

Latest from Business

Business

What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?

Premium
Opinion

How to preserve family wealth: Nick Stewart

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?
Business

What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?

Rocket Lab shares rose over 800% in the past year, nearing US$50.

24 Jul 10:59 PM
Premium
Premium
How to preserve family wealth: Nick Stewart
Opinion

How to preserve family wealth: Nick Stewart

18 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema
Hawkes Bay Today

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema

14 Jul 04:29 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP