Tararua businesses hampered by shortages and delays

Peter Greatbatch - Tararua's building boom is hampered by supply issues and customers are asked for patience as they wait for jobs to be done. Photo / Leanne Warr

Tararua businesses are struggling to keep up with demand due to delays and supply shortages.

Dannevirke builder Hamish Illsley said many components and supplies are taking time to get through.

He said some colours of steel, for instance, were taking longer.

"Some of the suppliers are saying to us 'try and be very careful with your client', to give them a choice of colours and show them the ones that are going to be slower to get and perhaps consider the ones that are going to be easier to get."

Many supplies of hardware were also supplying loyal trade customers only.

"That keeps the industry going. Looking after the ones that look after them."

Builder Peter Greatbatch said some trade suppliers would only deal with those who had an account.

The current building boom had everyone so busy that many of his clients were on a waiting list.

He said many Dannevirke supplies were now on allocations of so many square metres of material per month.

"It's something that we've never had before, but it just seems to be the nature of the beast at the moment."

Greatbatch said delays meant that delayed workers on projects which would then continue down the line.

"We've just got to be careful we don't end up with half-finished jobs all over the place. Otherwise it just becomes a nightmare."

With many tradespeople "flat out" that meant those with smaller jobs would either have to wait until someone was able to take on the job, or look elsewhere.

Illsley said he had talked to a few people who told him they had been ringing around.

"They're not understanding that it takes some time with a tradesperson. In some places it could be months because we've got enough work on at the moment."

Both Illsley and Greatbatch said most of their customers had been understanding but there were the odd grumpy ones.

Greatbatch said he just had to take it "on the chin".

"It is frustrating when someone vents off at you, but you can't vent back."

Another part of the problem was the real estate market, Illsley said.

"[It's] been very buoyant."

He said there were a lot of new people coming into Dannevirke and they would buy a house, expecting to be able to renovate and put their own touch on the place, putting the pressure on tradespeople expecting work to be able to be done within two weeks.

"I think it's fair to say that in Dannevirke, we're probably well short of qualified tradespeople. In the cities there's a lot more to go around of course.

"I've always said if we were to get some sort of mid-range industry, a whole lot more families coming in for mid-range work, like a processing plant, then we'd have a lot more family people, that would make a difference."

Trades are not the only businesses feeling the pressure.

Paul Booth, part-owner of Dannevirke Suzuki, said there was up to 12 months delay in getting orders.

He said the shop was well down in some items and had an excess in some others as they were trying to get stock up while they could.

Much of the issues began soon after the world became aware of the pandemic.

"It was fairly soon after we started struggling for product," Booth said.

Constant restrictions and lockdowns had caused huge damage to businesses.

Booth said it was now a matter of living with it, rather than imposing further restrictions.

Bryce Galloway - Many businesses across the sector were already feeling the pinch. Photo / Leanne Warr LW20220214_Roofs2

Dannevirke Chamber of Commerce chairman Bryce Galloway said the problems were across all sectors and not just the construction industry.

"You look at the shipping side of things and what's happening there. Our supermarkets are going to start feeling the pinch soon. And probably already are."

He said with the Government's policy around Covid and isolation, if the mapping numbers came to fruition and people had to isolate, the country would just stop.

"You'll have a situation where certain sectors won't be able to go to work. Probably the supermarket's an ideal typical scenario. They mightn't be able to run their bakery, they mightn't be able to run their delicatessen. Because they just won't have enough staff.

"There'll be lots of businesses around the country that will have to close because they won't have the staff."

Galloway said he understood why suppliers were restricting trade to loyal customers.

"It keeps their workers going, keeps them in jobs and paying their mortgages. Whereas d.i.y.ers most of them have jobs. They can just wait to do their project until things come right."

He said most had been accepting but there were a few that weren't and were "quite rude" about it and didn't understand the situation.

"The biggest thing is that we have to support our local business, we need to support local business, in whatever way we can."