With its first wave of staff settled into a temporary office in Napier, cloud-based accounting firm Xero is on another recruitment drive with an aim to build up to 40 staff in Hawke's Bay by the end of the year.
Chief executive Rod Drury said there were currently 17 staff operating out of an office in the New Zealand Technology Group building on Carlyle St, Napier, and they were looking for 12 more personnel to add to what he said was an impressive talent pool.
"We have been really impressed with the calibre of people we've found, it's an experiment opening up in Hawke's Bay and it's going really well."
He said the move to open a regional office was prompted by a desire to prove that the Government's investment in ultrafast broadband had enabled companies such as Xero to create quality regional jobs to complement those in the larger city centres.
Xero had offices in Wellington and Auckland and the move also took some pressure off those buildings, Mr Drury said.