Majority of Auckland businesses back alternate location for the port

New mayor has work to improve satisfaction with council
Divided views on transport investment focus

A majority of Auckland’s small to medium business owners would choose a different location for the Port of Auckland over its current position according to the latest MYOB Business Monitor survey.

When offered a choice of locations for the port, 54 per cent of SME business owners would choose another location, 31 per cent selected the current location, while and 16 per cent did not know.

Of the alternate locations, 16 per cent suggested amalgamating with the Port of Tauranga, 15 per cent said it should be moved to North Port (Whangarei), 15 per cent chose the Manukau Harbour, 7 per cent chose the Firth of Thames and 1 per cent said other.

“The location of the port is hugely important to small business owners in Auckland,” says MYOB Head of SME Ingrid Cronin-Knight.

“It’s a vital piece of economic infrastructure. It’s  important that the next mayor settles on a long term plan for its location that gives business owners confidence in the future.”

When asked if they were satisfied with Auckland Council’s support for businesses, 29 per cent of Auckland owners were dissatisfied with Auckland Council’s performance, only 15 per cent were satisfied, while just under half were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (49 per cent).

“SMEs are looking to Auckland Council to help set the economic conditions to help them succeed. However twice as many operators are dissatisfied with its performance. We’d encourage the new mayor and councillors to get alongside local businesses more to understand what’s important to them,” says Ms Cronin-Knight.

“Small businesses want action on reducing resource consent times, reducing business rates and making council easier to deal with.”

Owners were also divided in terms of dealing with Auckland’s transport problems.

When asked whether the focus of the new Auckland Council should be more directed more on roads or public transport, 31 per cent of respondents said all or most should go on public transport, 39 per cent said an equal amount should go on both, while 26 per cent said most or all should go on roads and 3 per cent did not know.

“Fixing Auckland’s transport is one of the top issues facing the new mayor. It’s vitally important to deal with congestion so businesses can move their goods and people efficiently around the city.  It’s great to see a spread of support for investment in public transport.  This offers employees affordable means of getting to and from work,” says Ms Cronin-Knight.

“MYOB has worked alongside Auckland SMEs for more than 25 years. Our customers tell us they’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with Auckland Council’s performance, but the hope is the new mayor and council will focus more strongly on helping them succeed.

The MYOB Colmar Brunton Business Monitor Survey was carried out in last August and early September. It has a sample size of 326 and a margin of error of 6.5 per cent.
 

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For further comment or other information please contact:

Conor Roberts, MYOB NZ Communications and Public Affairs
M: 021 124 6004 / E: conor.roberts@myob.com

Gerard Blank, The Agency Communications Limited Director
P: 03 341 5841 / M: 0275 243 629 / E: gerard@theagencynz.co.nz

About MYOB
MYOB (ASX:MYO) is a leading cloud based business management solutions provider. It makes business life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses across Australia and New Zealand by simplifying accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, CRM, websites, job costing, inventory and more. MYOB provides ongoing support via many client service channels including a network of over 40,000 accountants, bookkeepers and other consultants. It is committed to ongoing innovation, particularly in cloud computing solutions, and in 2015 was awarded the BRW award for the most innovative large company for 500+ employees and placed 2nd in BRW’s Most Innovative Companies Award list across all categories nationally.  For more information, visit myob.co.nz or follow @MYOB on Twitter.

About the MYOB Business Monitor
The MYOB Business Monitor is a national survey of 1,000+ New Zealand small and medium business owners and managers, from sole traders to mid-sized companies, representing the major industry sectors. It has run since 2009, commissioned to independent market research firm Colmar Brunton. This most recent survey ran in January/February 2016. The Monitor researches business performance and attitudes in areas such as profitability, cash flow, pipeline, technology usage and the government. The weighting of respondents by both geographical location and sector is based on overall market proportions as established by Statistics New Zealand and is drawn from an independent survey group, which includes both MYOB clients and non-clients.