Are RMA reforms the solution for HB’s housing issues?

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In February, Environment Minister David Parker announced the government’s proposals to repeal and replace the RMA with the following three Acts:

1. Natural and built Environment Act

2. Strategic Planning Act

3. Managed Retreat and Climate Change Act

These actions are in response to a broad consensus that the system introduced by the RMA has not adequately protected the natural environment or enabled development where needed and has under-delivered for urban areas – contributing to rapidly increasing urban land prices to the extent that NZ’s housing is amongst the least affordable in the OECD. While it will be interesting to see if it is the legislation itself or implementation by people, or in fact other non-RMA factors such as engineering approval
or infrastructure delivery processes that is the culprit, which will inevitably be borne out over in time, the option of fundamental change certainly seems to have been favoured over targeted improvements. Let’s hope that day to day resource management is improved as a result and we’re not getting wholesale change for a few issues in a few areas of country. Immediate issues with housing supply cannot be denied however, and with the Randerson review referring to poorly managed urban growth leading to increased homelessness, worsening traffic congestion, increased environmental pollution, lack of transport choice and flattening productivity growth, the reality is its not just enabling development for developers, its actually about enabling development for society.

Here in Hawke’s Bay urban growth is underpinned by the Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Strategy. Embedded within the Regional Policy Statement the Strategy requires Councils (or private parties) to complete a complex Plan Change process to re-zone land, including development of Structure Plans to guide future subdivision consent applications and infrastructure development. That process is then followed by a subdivision consent application layer prior to commencement of residential development (building houses).

This process can typically take 3-5 years plus to get to a point where a house is constructed. Given our housing shortfall and the severity of associated social issues, this ‘release’ timeframe is unacceptable. Will the reforms assist us? In time probably yes, but what is the time frame? While an ‘exposure draft’ is said to be released in September this year, media releases refer to this containing only limited details and not details such as consenting processes, designations, proposals of national significance, Environment Court workings or transitional arrangements. While these details will obviously follow in time, initial indications are that the new laws will not be in place for three years or more.

Indeed, Central Government has suggested it will be five years for the reforms to have effect! Can we wait? and if not, why must we remain bound to the current ‘preferred’ but inadequate process? We say, ‘lets not’. Let’s not ‘do nothing’ in the hope of future solutions. Let’s not wait for change that may not even work. Let’s not leave families to raise their children in motels and substandard housing during their formative years – in the hope of a house when they become teenagers, only for their first home to be unaffordable.

Let’s bite the bullet, let’s buck the system, let’s, as a community, try a few  different things and see if there’s a model that enables Councils to design concepts within existing areas that developers or ministry organisations can pick up with greater certainty and get on with building for example. Lets look at those areas already identified in HPUDS, or parts them, and really think about the need for prolonged and expensive Plan Change and Structure Plan processes and consider whether we can jump straight to a subdivision process – potentially saving years of delay. I’m not suggesting we do away with planning tools. Indeed, the Resource Management Act, in its current form, includes tools to help enable this brave approach – we just need buy-in from Councils and the Community to get a little more creative on how to apply those tools and be open to applying different methods to different situations. We can do this – Hawkes Bay is different to Auckland and Tauranga, our new development areas are not actually that big, so let’s just keep things in the box.

Just doing this may well achieve at least some of the outcomes that we as a society desperately need a whole lot earlier than the alternative. Who knows, with a narrower approach seemingly being talked about, it may well be that we lose some of the flexibility that is actually there if we choose to use it. Given what is at stake, shouldn’t we be willing to look at things a little differently and get a little more enthused about trying to make things happen, as there is a real risk that the solutions being talked about are in fact for the next problem, in 10-15 years’ time – not this one.

 

The increasing value of ‘SOMO’

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The post lockdown activity levels and value growth throughout 2020 was a surprise to all, especially as it was contrary to what most experts and economists predicted. The performance of the residential market during the last quarter of 2020 was simply staggering. Hawke’s Bays’ residential housing values grew 19% during 2020. However, it is not just the precipitous increase in values that has our attention, it is the relatively short period of time that this jump has occurred.

The lion’s share of the 19% value growth for 2020 in the region was experienced in the last quarter (October, November, and December) with 50% of Napier’s value growth occurring in this period and 80% of Hastings. The acceleration of growth rates caught many by surprise and left buyers scrambling to adjust their offers upwards with the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) followed by ‘sick of missing out’ (SOMO). Assessing accurate valuation levels using historical sales data was almost impossible as the market was growing at over 3-5% per month.

The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on value levels has varied, with lower value level housing growing by even higher percentage levels than the medium to upper level value housing. The 2020 year finished in a sprint towards the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, only punctuated by the Christmas holiday close down. When our team returned to work in January the market continued where it had left off and the excess demand is still present with values still growing strongly.

How long this will continue is anyone’s guess. The market dynamic, with demand well outstripping supply, and such low interest rates suggest the residential property values will continue to increase.

The rate of growth has been astonishing, and possibly this will only be eased as affordability is not mitigated by low interest rates. This should have the impact of lessening the demand. Although, many buyers are now in the SOMO frame of mind which continues to fuel rising prices. Why is there such strong demand? Basically, it’s a perfect storm. Whilst there is much market uncertainty due to COVID 19 there are certain dynamics which are driving demand for residential property.

At the lower end of the market, we have a very active sector as certain groups compete for housing stock. Kaianga Ora – Homes and Communities has been very active in purchasing residential properties to add to their inventory as well as being active in redeveloping old state housing. First time home buyers have renewed vigour to get their foot on the property ladder, spurred on by the low interest rates. Then, there are those who are now advantageously positioned with good equity and who can take advantage of the low interest rate environment to buy an investment property. This is seen as a less risky way to make a superior return than they can gain through other investments. None of these groups are selling their homes. Through the middle sectors of the market homeowners are using their increased  equity to upgrade to superior property’s locking in mortgages at very low interest rates making the move affordable.

The construction sector is also under pressure with a lack of tradespeople and a lack of vacant residential land for development. The upper end of the residential and lifestyle market is being driven partly by local Hawke’s Bay residents but also a steady stream of people relocating to Hawke’s Bay from our larger city centres as well as those that have decided to return to New Zealand due to COVID-19. The demand for this sector is expected to continue as it is expected more Kiwis will be returning home in the coming years.

One sector that may relieve some pressure is the Retirement Village sector. There are 677 new occupation units under construction in Hawke’s Bay at present. As incoming residents sell their homes prior to entering the village this is likely to provide some much needed residential stock. However, with most residential sectors being squeezed for inventory it is difficult to see how the residential market will slow unless there is a major impact to the market conditions in some way. While we consider it would be healthy for the growth rate to slow down, we do expect the market to continue growing through 2021.

Record making start to 2021 in commercial property activity – Danny Blair – Colliers HB

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Colliers Hawke’s Bay has kicked off 2021 with the largest January and February since inception in 2004.

The economic rebound experienced in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 post the lockdowns led to a rise in a number of local economic indicators, as a broad range of sectors reignited in an attempt to make up for the lost periods of activity. The rebound across many measures has been strong, particularly retail spending, residential and commercial real estate and export conditions.

This has buoyed local conditions, providing cautious confidence in occupier and investor decision-making. There are a number of underlying economic benefits the Hawke’s Bay enjoys including a growing population and employment opportunities which support commercial real estate activity. Investors are conscious that a rebound and resumption in more normal market conditions are eventuating due to the forced short-term nature of market disruption. As a result, investors are turning their focus towards the solid market conditions leading up to COVID-19 and reviewing the fundamentals. Investors are postulating that the current uncertainty created by COVID-19 could be accommodated in many circumstances, especially if incorporating longer-term projections.

Office

Despite caution in the office sector due to the rise in remote working, an active development sector is forecast over the next five years. Supporting some of the optimism is the economic and business performance outlooks. One measure to keep an eye on is the recent changes in the number of filled jobs reported by StatsNZ. It is still early days, and overall growth rates are still below COVID-19 levels, but some trends that show office occupier demand returning are appearing.

Industrial

Strong leasing market fundamentals, which have seen vacancy rates holding at low levels and upward pressure on rentals, have underpinned the positive sentiment towards the industrial sector amongst investors. The results of the latest Colliers investor sentiment survey found that investor confidence across the country was a net positive 45% (optimists minus pessimists).

Retail

There have been some clear winners in the retail sector after a challenging 2020. Latest data released by StatsNZ indicated core retail card spending in December 2020 totalled $6.68 billion, an increase of $1.14 billion from the previous month and 4.8% higher than December 2019.Consumable and durables recorded the biggest spending increase as Kiwi’s spent up strongly in liquor, supermarket and grocery stores. A new milestone was also recorded with spending on food and beverage services surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time on record. The nonfood and beverage large format retail sector have also benefited, with strong spending in the furniture, electrical and hardware category, with spending up 12% compared to December 2019.

Economy is performing better than forecast

Action taken by the government and Reserve bank to insulate, as far as possible, NZ business from the impact of COVID-19 and the relative success the country has had in dealing with the virus has seen the economy outperforming original forecasts. Treasury now expects New Zealand’s GDP to grow by an average rate of 4.2% across 2021 and 2022 outpacing Australia (forecast 3.6%) and the USA (forecast 3.5%). While unemployment rates are expected to increase, they are much lower than original expectations.

The unemployment rate is forecast to peak at 7.8% as opposed to earlier predictions of 9.8%, according to latest Treasury forecasts. Government policies including business tax refunds, small business cashflow loans, wage support and mortgage holidays successfully limited job losses and company failures. The Reserve Banks quantitative easing and reduction and stability in the OCR until March 2021 has improved market liquidity, kept interest rates low and boosted investment confidence.

Should I work in or Workout

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A structured health and fitness routine should be high on the priority list for us all this year.

We are seeing a big uptake of people locally and online making it a priority. This is a positive. However, many of these people are presenting with aches, pains and niggles and having trouble finding balance in their lives. The assumption is that they need to train hard. No pain no gain!

This is NOT normal. With all the uncertainty we experienced last year in addition to today’s fast paced life we are bombarded with stress from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. Stress comes in many forms – we have nutritional stress, emotional stress, physical stress, electromagnetic stress, and mental stress. Your body does not recognise where the stress is coming from it just responds to it. Adding high intensity exercise to a body and mind that already has a high stress load often results in more niggles, aches and pains.

We are in a position to control and manage all of these things which will help with reducing the stress load, find balance and build a health and fitness routine that gets results.

Many people perceive the symptoms as normal and put them down to their current situation and a busy life.

If you are experiencing any of the following common symptoms it is a sign that your body is not coping with stress.

  • Aches and pains
  • Bloating
  • Fatigue and poor sleep
  • Trouble waking up in the morning
  • Weight gain or loss
  • Mental tiredness
  • Not coping with stress as you used to

To help find balance with your health and fitness routine it’s important that you do the right type of activity for your mind and body.

Before you start your training check in with yourself and rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 against the seven Peak Fitness Pillars of Health and Fitness below.

1 = Feeling poor and off your game 10 = Feeling great and ready to play

If your numbers are on the low side don’t be scared to adapt your session to suit where you are at. Reducing training intensity and volume may be just what your body needs. If your numbers are on the high side get out there and follow your plan (just keep some energy in the tank for tomorrow). Once you have done this you can make a more educated call on working out or working in. In an ideal world your weekly training will include both working in and working out exercises.

Remember that working out costs your body energy. If your check in scores are low use some working in exercises to give your body an energy boost.

Working in exercises could include meditation, yoga or pilates, slow walking or mobilisation exercises.

The key things that qualify an exercise as working in are:

  1. The exercise and movement should be of a low enough intensity that you could perform it straight after a meal on a full
  2. You should be in control of your breath throughout the session without your heart rate or breathing rate
  3. Move in time with your breathing. Let the speed of your breath determine the speed you move.
  4. You should feel relaxed during the movement or
  5. Afterwards you should feel lighter and have an energy

Try 10-20 reps of these working in exercises and see how much better your body feels. We recommend a quiet area in bare feet

https://training.runninghotcoaching.com/videos/working-in- with-jess

If your scores are high then try 2-5 rounds of 10-20 reps (or 30- 60 seconds) of this great working out session. It will be a great addition to training.

https://training.runninghotcoaching.com/videos/working-out- with-jess

Remember the balance between working in and working out each week is the key to great performance and consistent results.

School student lands key governance role on YES – Sam Wixon

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A “transformational experience” has not only propelled former Havelock North High School student Sam Wixon into the business world but landed him a key governance role.

Having competed in The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) for the past two years, the 18-year-old has been elected as the youth trustee for 2021–2022 on the Board of Young Enterprise Trust, which provides strategic direction and governance for the organisation.

“One of the biggest reasons that I applied for the youth trustee role was because I’ve had such a transformational experience with YES and I really want and hope that other people can have that same experience,” Sam says.

He hopes to have a positive impact on the bicultural side of Young Enterprise. “I want to make sure there is a strong voice for the students and a good understanding of what the students are after and what it is like going through the

programme currently.”

During his final two years of high school (2019–2020), Sam’s business Te Kete ō Tangaroa developed an alternative to polystyrene bins, drawing inspiration from the mātauranga of his tūpuna to do so.

Passionate about business, design and te ao Māori, Sam was inspired to take polystyrene out of circulation, offering an alternative with his own bins made

from a biodegradable material that could also be industrially composted.

Te Kete ō Tangaroa received three National Excellence awards, the He Kai Kei Aku Ringa Award for Rangatahi Entrepreneurs two years in a row, and the HSBC Award for Environmental Sustainability in 2020.

It was also one of the five YES businesses selected for the Global Kaitiakitanga Project in collaboration with New Zealand at Expo 2020. In 2019, Sam was in the Uprise digital team at Entrepreneurs in Action (EIA), which took out both business challenges.

Sam says he “never would have thought” he would be able to achieve what he has, but YES pushed him and showed him his potential. “It made me a lot more open to taking and grasping at every opportunity, pushing myself and being resilient, and

I think that’s really transformational for myself and most people.”

As well as his trustee position, Sam has recently begun a Bachelor of Design Innovation majoring in Design for Social Innovation and minoring in Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington.

His experience with YES has meant he now has a “really good tool belt of abilities and understandings that are more than what we just get out of the stock standard school experience”.

As for his business, he is unsure what the future holds.

“I have been in contact with different organisations and groups about it and the overall conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s going to take a really large amount of money to be able to get

it to a point where it will be market-ready, which is something I can’t do by myself.”

Sam’s success is the latest in a long list of trailblazing Rangatahi from Hawke’s Bay who have achieved national success through YES. Most notably, former Karamu High School student Jeriel Sajan, who was the first to hold the youth trustee position for 2019–2020.

The end of Jeriel’s term has seen her take up the newly created position of Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne regional coordinator – a role she is looking forward to diving into headfirst.

A YES alumna who participated in both 2015 and 2016, Jeriel developed a passion for both business and the work of Young Enterprise and is excited to now be a regional coordinator.

Jeriel has continued her keen interest in business and is currently completing a Bachelor in Business Studies at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT).

“When the opportunity to be the national youth trustee came up, I thought I would love to give back to the organisation; and then actually being involved at these different levels, I just fell in love with it, so this is like my dream job,” Jeriel says.

She not only hopes to increase participation for the region – already at 450 students – but also see students place at nationals as well as win a sponsored award.

“We certainly give the rest of New Zealand a good run for their money and we would love to show that we are actually leaders in this area, so I’m going to be pushing for that in the coming year.”

Despite the disruptions faced because of Covid-19, more than 4,000 senior secondary students took part in YES last year, setting up over 1,000 companies between them. Only 21 of those companies made it to the national final, including Te Kete ō Tangaroa.

Hawke’s Bay also won three sponsored awards – the same amount as Wellington and just one less than Auckland, who has almost three times the number of students participating.

Jeriel believes Hawke’s Bay’s success is down to people seeing the value that YES has on a young person’s life.

“I think people get onboard with the momentum and they can see how a young person becomes more confident and more resilient after they’ve had a chance to give this a go, and the more the region gets on board the more our Rangatahi can really thrive.”

As part of the programme, Jeriel is looking for people to consider being a mentor for a team. “These young people would really benefit from having an older person who is more experienced in business or other sectors.”

If you want to find out how you can be a part of YES here in Hawke’s Bay, contact Jeriel on jeriel@hbchamber.nz

Call of duty interview inspires new innovation for smart phone

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Peter Fowler has an entrepreneurial spirit, an uncanny ability to see what others don’t and to always find a gap in the market for innovation.

A resident of Kahuranaki Road in the Tuki Tuki Valley, Peter is a journalist by profession. He has worked in newsrooms and was the Radio New Zealand (RNZ) voice of Hawke’s Bay for a number of years. But he was always questioning and probing. For Peter, innovating was always where he wanted to be; finding ways to bring the news to a mass audience in an easy and accessible digital format was always a priority.

It is this quest for better ways of delivering news that led him to create newsroom.co.nz, a digital platform that has gone on to be one of New Zealand’s top news websites, with a reputation for independent and investigative journalism.

Peter has long since moved on to his next venture, an app called VoxPop, which transcribes voice to text and is also of broadcast quality so allows it to be used for radio interviews. The term ‘VoxPop’ is short for ‘Vox Populi’, which means the voice of the people.

Peter says the concept came to him when he was the RNZ Hawke’s Bay reporter in 2016. He stumbled across a column of light armoured vehicles (LAVs) on a military exercise and needed to conduct interviews there and then.

He says that there was one problem, he had left the cord for his microphone in the office. He ended up using his phone to record the interviews.

“I came back and cut together a piece for Morning Report and it was very hard for the untrained ears to know that it had been recorded on a cell phone as opposed to a $4,000 recording machine.

“It then occurred to me that everyone is essentially walking around with a recording studio in their pocket and it could be possible to get production quality recordings from anywhere via your phone.”

Peter soon realised that the groundbreaker would be to have an app that recorded interviews and then transcribed them to text. Together with co-founder Andrew McMillan, VoxPop was born. However, they knew they had to get it out to the American market. They contacted Demian Perry, then the digital director at National Public Radio in the United States, who loved the idea, but later confided that he did not think it was possible to achieve given the complexities involved.

This introduction led to interest from American University Radio WAMU in Washington, DC and its radio talk show 1A.

But first, the product needed to be tested; so Peter built an RNZ VoxPop and trialled it on Jesse Mulligan’s show in the summer of 2017.

“It worked really well and so we built it for 1A – which has an audience of about five million and is syndicated on about 600 radio stations across America – and they embraced it.”

Peter and Andrew believe in a “viral” strategy – one that appears to have worked so far.

“We’ve priced it really low at the moment, because when you develop a new product that does a new thing, the first thing you need is proof of concept.”

To do this, users had to prove for themselves that the product was better than what they were doing at that time.

“The biggest problem I had in 1996 when I wanted to start newsroom was people didn’t understand the Internet, he is hoping the American market will open up a bit more as the grip of Covid-19 loosens.

He says a key strategy is getting a new pricing structure by using a business model whereby many clients pay small amounts of money rather than having a large upfront cost.

Now VoxPop has WFYI in Indianapolis, Science Friday, which has had Dr Anthony Fauci as a guest, and it is about to launch on The Money Pit Podcast. The product is also being launched in Australia with newspaper production company Pagemasters, which will act as the agents to sell VoxPop there.

With the launch of The Money Pit VoxPop comes an important update that means broadcasters will be able to publish comments back into the wire, therefore completing the ‘feedback loop’.

“It becomes a form of social media driven by voice. You have your own branded social media that is moderated, rather than engaging people on Facebook and Twitter where there are trolls and people get distracted.”

While VoxPop is very much anchored in public radio, the opportunities are endless. Peter has learned from the newsroom venture and recognises that it is possible to keep

one’s core product while pivoting and adapting where necessary. This mindset led them to change VoxPop into a remote recording studio for New Zealand and Pacific Community and Access Radio during Covid-19 lockdown last year. VoxPop Studio, as it is called, is still being used by broadcasters.

VoxPop is actively exploring interest from people who would like to use it for research, consultancy, commerce and customer interaction, as well as for people with hearing or visual impairments.

Overlaying all of this is the so-called ‘new Internet’. Peter foresees a time when VoxPop is integrated into the voice assistant webspace whereby users command their assistant (Siri, Alexa, etc.), record a VoxPop and send it all through the smart speaker network.

Peter is hopeful for the future and says Business Hawke’s Bay has given him good advice along the way.

“If you are an entrepreneur in Hawke’s Bay and you’re wondering about how to do things, Business Hawke’s Bay can be a huge help.”

 

 

The road to success for QRS starts with being community focussed – Nigel Pollock

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Nigel Pollock, Quality Roading and Services (QRS) chief executive puts the Wairoa based roading firm’s business award win down to maintaining a balance between economic support for council (which owns QRS) and its social responsibility to the people of Wairoa.

QRS won the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce 2020 Pan Pac Supreme Business Awards at the end of 2020, with Nigel celebrating the win with most of the 87 strong team and a very proud mayor in Craig Little.

The Profit interviewed Nigel on what the win means for the business and Wairoa district and what’s next for the business.

Briefly describe what QRS does? Tell me a bit about the businesses – what’s the mix of council and commercial type of business it does? Is all the work based in and around Wairoa or further afield?

Quality Roading and Services is 100 percent owned by Wairoa District Council. We’re known as a council-controlled trading organisation or a CCTO. We have our own board of directors with reporting responsibilities to Wairoa District Council councillors and have been trading for 26 years. Our speciality is civil construction and roading infrastructure. About a third of our work is for Wairoa District Council. Just under two-thirds of our work is for the Government and a small amount of work is in the private sector. We offer a full range of civil engineering skills, experience and equipment. We work mainly in and around Wairoa, which has a geographical footprint covering a third of Hawkes Bay! But we’ve also worked as far south as Bayview, north to Matawai, and west towards Taupo.

QRS was a finalist in 2019 and then took out the top prize in 2020 – it’s obvious the business was performing well – what (if anything did you do differently) to take out the awards?

Our balance between economic support for our owner, Wairoa District Council, and our social responsibilities to the people of Wairoa was, I believe, is the reason we won the Supreme Award. Last year’s award entry process forced us to look at how we navigated 2020 which was a tough year for everyone. Here at QRS a lot of the groundwork had already been done in 2019. We’d invested in diversity, growth, customer service, staff, and greater strategic thinking. We had a strong balance sheet and so were able to rise to the challenges of the difficult year. Our pre-tax profit was 27 percent higher than targeted by securing more work than predicted. Revenue was $10 million more than targeted. Our operating profit before tax and shareholder distribution to Council was $800,685. Our agreed shareholder distribution to Council was $250,000. The numbers reflect QRS’s larger, more complex and challenging contracts.

You passionately spoke out about the people of the organisation in your acceptance speech – how much of a difference does it make having a team that acts as ONE with each feeling that they are making a strong contribution to the firm’s success?

It’s all there in our overarching vision: a strong and successful company, growing the Wairoa community. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini which translated means: my strength is not mine alone, it is the strength of many. We’re a family, many staff are actually family with mothers working alongside sons, brothers working alongside uncles. It makes us strong. And I don’t think any of us will forget that night. It was a fantastic feeling to be there along with QRS staff when the company’s name was announced as winner. It was a privilege to see firsthand how proud they all are of the company they work for. QRS whānau are true ambassadors for our district.

QRS is one of the largest employers in Wairoa, this a responsibility that weighs heavily – or more something that the firm wears with pride?

It’s an absolute privilege and we wear it with pride! We’re the second largest employer in Wairoa after AFFCO. Due to our location and the district’s demographic attracting and retaining potential employees can be seen as a challenge. But here at QRS our objective has always been to be an employer of choice for operational and highly skilled staff whether they be locally sourced, from New Zealand, or another country. We promote the work as a career while championing Wairoa’s lifestyle. It’s a privilege to be able to employ locals and see them thrive and flourish. We invested $7 million in salaries and wages last year.

What are the future growth plans for QRS?

We are invested in a new operations hub. The 750 square metre hub will provide space for an additional 30 staff, central meeting and briefing rooms, human resource and finance workspaces. It will be a modern fit-for-purpose building at our Kaimoana Rd depot and will help unleash our business efficiency and potential. We’re very grateful to have received support from the Provincial Growth fund to make it a reality. It’s another leap forward in the QRS journey where we invest in our most important asset, our people. They’re what sustains our ongoing growth.

As an employer – and a local business (not a large national just servicing the area) does this change your approach to how you do a job, how you get involved in the community and how you employ and upskill locals?

We operate in a remote rugged area often needing urgent, large-scale emergency slip responses. We’re the only company that can respond quickly and with the right kind of machinery and expertise from the Wairoa side. While Napier contractors work northwards, we’ll work southwards. It’s the same between Waiora and Gisborne. That emergency response capability means we’re resourced for large maintenance projects around Hawke’s Bay.

With regard to employment, many tenders are now heavily weighted on how much staff training and development is associated with the work rather than on price. Contractors like QRS must show how new and existing staff, particularly Māori, will receive training and qualifications during the project. Eighty percent of QRS staff identify as Māori and last year QRS increased its training budget from $200,000 a year to $450,000 a year. This year we have a record 22 staff in apprenticeships.

As for community support, we believe a thriving community can exist only with the support of all who live and work in it. We love giving back to the community that supports our company and its staff. In recent times we’ve donated money and services to sports teams, science and technology education and events, the Wairoa A and P Show, and the Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust.

As the leader of QRS – what’s the most enjoyable part of your job?

The people. The people around me who have shared values and are prepared to make a difference. Understanding what your purpose is and making sure that it is bigger than oneself is important to me. I get to work with people I respect. I get to work with people I like. I also love working with our shareholder and owner Wairoa District Council. Without their support, energy and expertise, this ‘journey’ would not have happened.

How do you give back to a team that has done so well?

I can’t emphasise enough how important recognition is, recognition for a job well done, and in front of your peers, that’s something that can never be taken away. It was an incredible night for the staff that came to the award ceremony. The next week we brought the whole team together for a shared big breakfast. The Mayor came and we were able to share the success face-to-face with everyone and pay our respects to every staff member. We did an exercise that morning asking everyone to write on a piece of paper how they were feeling. Some staff wrote lengthy sentences about their pride, joy and delight. Others scrawled things like “Too Much! and “Kia Kaha!” To me that says we are heading in the right direction.

Investing in local businesses part of private equity strategy

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The Hawke’s Bay economy has been built on the success of the primary sector for many years, but with an emergence of savvy technology businesses, local investors now have the chance to have a stake in privately owned businesses like Te Mata Mushrooms and AskYourTeam.

With term investment rates at traditional banks as low as .75 percent for 12 months, local investors are turning to other investment opportunities as part of the investment portfolios.

Boutique private equity investment company True North, based in Havelock North has two investment funds that include a mix of local and national businesses, with the door open for both new investors as well as local businesses needing capital and business nous to support growth opportunities.

True North launched its first fund, NorthWest in 2015 and $10,000 invested then, is now worth $26,000.

The NorthWest fund has a 55 percent shareholding in Freedom Internet, a leading specialist provider of high quality internet networks into apartment buildings and the accommodation sector throughout Australia and New Zealand; 25 percent in grocery clearance business Reduced to Clear, 51 percent in Havelock North based SaaS company Ask Your Team and 30 percent in MindHive, a technology business that captures quality data for AI purposes.

In 2019 True North launched an Agri-fund, DueNorth, to take advantage of the considerable agricultural opportunities on offer in Hawke’s Bay and further afield, this fund has a 45 percent investment in Te Mata Mushrooms, a company that last year announced a $40 million expansion project including a $19 million government loan.

True North chief executive Ian Black says they’re keen to not only find local investors but also up and coming local businesses to add to the two portfolios, saying that it’s a win- win for business owners and investors as well as the region’s economy.

“Private equity performs a key role in accelerating a business owners business plan, as often they don’t have enough capital to take advantage of rapid growth opportunities and outpace the competition and instead they end up struggling from milestone to milestone.

“if we use Te Mata Mushrooms as an example. We injected new capital from investors as well as government money via the Provincial Growth Fund and this has allowed the business can invest into a new facility and get into job creation far more quickly.

Dean Prebble, a Venture Partner with True North adds that there is a focus on adding other Hawke’s Bay businesses into the funds, especially agri-tech and food businesses due to Hawke’s Bay’s natural advantage in the primary sector.

“Investing in a portfolio of private businesses is great for local economies, if you can get some of that money that’s sitting in relatively passive equity funds and get it working and creating jobs, all of a sudden there’s growth in the region. “

Ian says True North looks to invest in privately owned growth businesses that have transitioned from start-up and early expansion mode with a preference for technology businesses as well as agriculture and food production, sectors that are

driving New Zealand’s exports, and which will become more important to the economy in the post-COVID-19 world.

“There is no guarantee of performance. Returns will vary during the period that new investors are brought into the syndicate, as new businesses are acquired, and as each business takes advantage of the opportunities in the market. Our target for each syndicate is to achieve a return of 20 percent per annum.

“While such investments carry risk, we endeavour to spread the portfolio over a range of businesses, to mitigate specific company risk. NorthWest and DueNorth follow a transparent and accountable process, providing full access to the accounts and regular investment updates.

As well as injecting new money into these growing businesses, the company also provides governance and operational expertise. A pre-requisite of each investment is a highly performing chief executive that has also invested in the business, a compelling and competitive product or service with proven demand and market opportunity and a scalable business model.

True North was established by former PWC partner and co- founder of Ask Your Team Andrew Bayly, now a non-executive director alongside Paul Yortt, an experienced early stage investor and company director.

Andrew and Paul were later joined by Rob Wheater who returned to New Zealand after international roles with Schneider Electric. They have built an experienced team including Ian who has had an extensive international career in software and Dean, a former New Zealand Trade Commissioner based in Taiwan.

“We provide investors with a high level of confidence in a strong return. This is founded on our due diligence approach, our extensive business experience and ability to bring further capital to the table.

Ian says this reduces the risk and enhances the opportunity for success in their our chosen investments.

“We have a proven track record of growing business to provide superior returns to investors, and by always taking a seat on the Board of our investments we can provide good governance support.

“The Hawke’s Bay region has tremendous growth opportunities ahead and we are privileged to play our part in supporting the local economy.

Drainways – from supporting role to lead position

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Hawke’s Bay has been a sea of traffic cones and fenced- off infrastructure work sites as large-scale civil projects such as the Hastings District water network rebuild and the many residential subdivisions and industrial projects take off.

At the heart of some of these private enterprise projects and local and central government work is local civil and commercial infrastructure business Drainways, which has shed the sub- contractor role to become lead contractor in recent years.

Drainways managing director Mark Currie said the time was right to come out of the shadows of other businesses and step up to lead contractor status on the confidence of a strong regional economy that has attracted people to move to Hawke’s Bay; a housing shortage; and local government securing Covid-19 recovery funding from central government for ailing infrastructure and upgrades of roads and pathways.

A licensed drainlaying and certified water reticulation company, Drainways was established in Hastings in 1976 by Owen Currie, who today remains active in the business but has handed over the day-to-day reins to his sons: Mark (managing director) and Brendan are responsible for business development; Jaydon is the training administrator and H&S coordinator; and Carlton is a project manager.

Experts in underground life support systems, Drainways specializes in civil and commercial water and drainage systems, working with water pipe sizes from 20 mm to 500 mm and drainage from 100 mm up to 1,200 mm plus.

“We had built a strong reputation as a sub-contractor but we weren’t in charge of our own destiny. In 2012, we decided it was time to step up as a lead contractor and we haven’t looked back.

“Like the projects we usually do – which are below ground – that’s what you could say about us as a business, that we’ve operated out of the spotlight, but now we’re front and centre.”

Since then, Drainways has been pre-qualified by Hastings Council as a ‘Complex A’ contractor, which enables it to undertake large council projects, and it is also a preferred supplier to the Napier City Council.

As a result, Drainways has been involved in leading some of the projects within the Hastings District Council’s $65 million water network investment, and has secured civil works and town house service connectivity on two large-scale retirement villages for the likes of Ryman Healthcare and Oceania Group.

These days you’ll see Drainways branding on safety fencing on major projects across Hastings, Napier and beyond.

At the heart of the business is a culture of inclusion for its growing staff, something that both Mark and Brendan say sets them apart from the large national firms.

“Our staff all know what’s happening with the business, what our targets are, our sales and how projects are tracking. We celebrate our successes together and we also invest in our staff to continue upskilling and progressing their careers within the business.

“We’ve recently had several of the team complete their tickets, either for reticulation, which is outside the land’s boundary, or drainlaying, which is inside the boundary.”

Brendan says it’s been great to work on two high-profile commercial projects and says this is an area where Drainways hopes to secure more residential and commercial development work across the region.

He says the Gracelands project was Drainways’ first major commercial job as lead contractor and involved all the civil works for 50 retirement apartments and dwellings in Pakowhai Road.

Soon after, Drainways was awarded lead contractor for all civil and town house drainage, earthworks, roading, surfacing, paving and topsoil on the $100 million Ryman Healthcare retirement village in Havelock North.

Generosity and goodwill on a giant scale

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2020 was certainly a tough year; one that none of us will forget and we will all feel the impact of for years to come.

As we start 2021, there’s hope that Hawke’s Bay – which hasn’t been hit as hard as other provinces – will fare better.

We’re very fortunate that our economy doesn’t rely on just one sector – think Queenstown and tourism. We may be regarded as an economy that relies on the primary sector but we’re well diversified with agriculture, horticulture and viticulture as well as aquaculture.

We’re also a desirable lifestyle location and as more Kiwis return home to New Zealand, demand on housing and infrastructure is going to increase, leading to major build programmes. Unfortunately,

though, it’s also driving house prices up to unprecedented levels.

The profile of New Zealand as a safe place to live has also received a major boost from the way that we have managed the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, there are many people who are struggling to make ends meet. Buying or renting a house is becoming incredibly difficult and the cost of necessities – food and electricity – as well as the lure of consumerism products is placing immense pressure on many families to get by.

Locally, you only have to drive past Nourished for Nil in Hastings early afternoon to see the ever-growing queue of people collecting much-needed food parcels.

It’s why we must congratulate many of our local businesses and voluntary organisations for getting behind a range of amazing local causes. Their contribution and the need of giving is only going to increase.

One example of generosity and goodwill is the annual Craggy Range Christmas event, whereby the winery and other local businesses such as Lowe Corporation, Furnware and Advanced Plumbing, along with the police and New Zealand Fire Service’s paid and volunteer members, came together to pack over 4,500 Santa sacks full of books, sports equipment and sleeping bags.

The amazing vision of the Peabody family and the support of local businesses created a memorable festive buzz demonstrating aroha that runs throughout our community.

The Santa sacks not only put smiles on the faces of children across Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa but will have also provided a sigh of relief for many parents, who would otherwise have been sacrificing hard-earned wages or government financial support to put something under the tree.

The sad reality is that while we packed 4,500 Santa sacks in 2020, many more will be needed by the end of 2021. As we move through 2021, consider how you support our community. It doesn’t need to be financially but rather by volunteering your time, experience and skills to make a positive contribution.