Ashburton A&P Show

Jason, Parth, Hannah, Vaughan and Julian from our Chamber team recently attended the Ashburton A&P Show, where they were able to catch up with a number of our members and the wider business community.

While mixing with others at the Show, predominantly from the agribusiness sector, there was a feeling of cautious optimism for the year ahead. With the changing political landscape, many were aware and preparing for some level of change, but looking forward to the stability that 2024 would hopefully bring once the new Government was in place.

This reinforced findings from the Mid-Canterbury business community in our recent Quarterly Canterbury Business Survey, which received 38 responses from businesses in Mid-Canterbury with the majority coming from primary sector businesses, followed by professional services, manufacturing, and accommodation/hospitality respectively. 
 
The biggest concerns for those businesses were inflationary pressure and rising interest rates, labour market constraints and compliance costs – the difference to the rest of Canterbury being a higher degree of concern about compliance costs than consumer confidence and demand. 
 
96% of businesses in Mid Canterbury have seen moderate or significant impacts on their business from rising costs. 
 
It was noted by several businesses that they saw the strong primary sector base as a positive for Canterbury as a whole – though the businesses that made those comments were not necessarily in that sector themselves.  
 
Just under 70% of businesses in Mid Canterbury still expect their own financial performance to be the same or better over the next 12 months, despite just under 60% expecting the New Zealand economy to be moderately or substantially weaker over the same time period.

Thanks to everyone who popped by our stand and went in the prize draw to win two awesome prizes. Congratulations to our winners:
-    JT AG Spreading, winners of a family pass for Ōpuke Thermal Pools and Spa
-    Rainer Irrigation, winners of a Sustainability consulting package from our Partners at DETA