Latest / Best of Business / Dane Ambler: Buy NZ Made executive director calls for policies to prioritise NZ suppliers amid closures

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Dane Ambler: Buy NZ Made executive director calls for policies to prioritise NZ suppliers amid closures · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Cause the keywis to buy New Zealand Maids, precious amount
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  Speaker 2: on a manufacturing sector and local producers. This follows the
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  Speaker 2: announcement of closures of both McCain and what Is processing
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  Speaker 2: sites this week. Buy New Zealand maid executive director Dane
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  Speaker 2: Ambler is calling for policy that prioritizes New Zealand supplies
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  Speaker 2: and he joins me, now, good morning.
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  Speaker 3: Dane, morning, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, are these closures part of a bigger problem?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, well, I think you know, we need to nip
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  Speaker 3: it in the butt now. It's really a stark reminder
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  Speaker 3: that you know, these local operators are operating in an
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  Speaker 3: increasingly difficult trading environment with rising coughs, demand has collapsed,
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  Speaker 3: and you know there's growing international competition. So now is
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  Speaker 3: really the time to back local and step in and
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  Speaker 3: get as much support as we can.
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  Speaker 2: What are you seeing and hearing from local companies?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a real mixed bags. So a huge number
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  Speaker 3: of them are doing extremely well at the moment. But
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  Speaker 3: we just put out a surveyed to market of our
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  Speaker 3: one thy five hundred small businesses and forty six percent,
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  Speaker 3: so almost half are seeing rising costs and more than
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  Speaker 3: a third say demand is really impacting their performance. So
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  Speaker 3: you know all of these things and you know, the
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  Speaker 3: fallout from COVID is really creating a perfect storm for
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  Speaker 3: local manufacturers and I think they're operating on really tight
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  Speaker 3: margins at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So how important is it to support our local producers.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's essential, and you know that's why we're
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  Speaker 3: calling for more deliberate backing of New Zealand made goods
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  Speaker 3: and services. And you know that really includes government procurement
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  Speaker 3: policies that prioritize local suppliers. This is crucial. You know,
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  Speaker 3: the Government department supports local that's that goes a really
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  Speaker 3: good way to showing the community the right way to
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  Speaker 3: go about things. And you know, would like to see
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  Speaker 3: more targeted support for these businesses to lower cost pressures
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  Speaker 3: and a clear strategy to strength and domestic production. So
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  Speaker 3: our partner's over in Australia. Australian May just got a
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  Speaker 3: twenty million dollar handout from their government, So that just
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  Speaker 3: gives you an idea of how much support they get
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  Speaker 3: over there.
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  Speaker 2: What was that handout for.
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  Speaker 3: I was basically to boost the brand and to encourage
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  Speaker 3: Australian consumers to support local brands.
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  Speaker 2: Gotcha, because that was going to be My next question
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  Speaker 2: is how do you promote and get people to buy
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  Speaker 2: from local producers?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean you've got to be aware that a
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  Speaker 3: lot of consumers are under immense cost pressure, so you
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  Speaker 3: don't want to encourage them to spend money you know
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  Speaker 3: that they don't have. So my whole philosophy on it
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  Speaker 3: is to support local where you can and where it's
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  Speaker 3: feasible for you to do so. So you know, that
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  Speaker 3: might mean changing out the popcorn brand to pop and
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  Speaker 3: Good at the supermarket or making you know, a micro
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  Speaker 3: decision like that that can support a local brand. You know,
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  Speaker 3: always going out to a cafe and getting a coffee
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  Speaker 3: locally is always a good option as well.
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  Speaker 2: What should you be looking for, Like, if you're purchasing something,
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  Speaker 2: you want to be checking out where the produce was
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  Speaker 2: growing rather than where it was packaged, don't you That's right?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? So obviously the new Zeale made logo, it's still around,
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  Speaker 3: been around for about thirty five years now and it's
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  Speaker 3: on you know, thousands of products. So we just went
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  Speaker 3: to the supermarket on Friday to see how many products
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  Speaker 3: we could find in five minutes with the logo on them,
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  Speaker 3: and there was probably fifty plus products in the supermarket.
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  Speaker 3: So it's everywhere once. Once you see it, you can't
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  Speaker 3: unsee it.
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  Speaker 2: How much is the current economic climation And you've sort
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  Speaker 2: of just mentioned this determined shopping behaviors though we know
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  Speaker 2: that the overseas option might be cheaper, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: when times are tough.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I think we know
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  Speaker 3: that kiwis do want to buy local, and we see
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  Speaker 3: that coming through all of our surveys and all of
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  Speaker 3: the data that we collect. But the reality is that
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  Speaker 3: times are still tough and cost of living pressures mean,
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  Speaker 3: you know, house holds are pulling back on their spending
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  Speaker 3: and that is flying through to reduce demand for locally
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  Speaker 3: made goods, which do tend to be a little bit
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  Speaker 3: more expensive. But you know, as I say, we don't
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  Speaker 3: have to break the bank to support local There are
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  Speaker 3: very small alternatives that that won't cost you a huge
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  Speaker 3: amount as well, don't Can.
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  Speaker 2: I just pop back to we were talking about how
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  Speaker 2: you want the government to sort of step in and
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  Speaker 2: what they could do to help, and you mention their
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  Speaker 2: procurement policies. Do we know how much procurement is done?
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  Speaker 3: Can?
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  Speaker 2: I mean majority of it?
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  Speaker 3: Surely within yeah, departments and things I don't know off
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  Speaker 3: the top of my head. But we have heard some
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  Speaker 3: real horror stories of late of government departments going with
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  Speaker 3: overseas businesses, and often these contracts only come down to
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  Speaker 3: a few thousand dollars. We would really urge government departments
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  Speaker 3: to think about the whole life cycle of that product
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  Speaker 3: that they're buying or the service that they're buying, because
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  Speaker 3: often the cost of replacement is far more than choosing
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  Speaker 3: a New Zealand made business in the first place. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we have seen some some some pretty concerning stories of
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  Speaker 3: you know, central and local government going out and you know,
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  Speaker 3: taking a contract with a Chinese company over a Kiwi
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  Speaker 3: company over a few thousand.
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  Speaker 2: Dollars, because it's not actually just about a product, is it.
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  Speaker 2: It will be about protecting a whole supply chain and
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  Speaker 2: then there's logistics involved in employment. It's bigger than just
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  Speaker 2: that product itself, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why you know, when we see businesses
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  Speaker 3: like McCain and what is closing up, you know, manufacturing plants.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to think about the flow through and the
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  Speaker 3: impact that has basically on the whole community. You know,
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  Speaker 3: hundreds of families impacted, and yeah, a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: life flight or backbone of that community closing. And once
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  Speaker 3: they do close, it's very unlikely that they will reopen,
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  Speaker 3: you know, So it is very concerning.
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  Speaker 2: You also concerned that the pressures mightn't get worse with
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  Speaker 2: what we're seeing with you know, the increase in increase
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  Speaker 2: in fuel costs.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, well I haven't seen you know, we've heard
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  Speaker 3: a lot of talk of a big recovery post COVID.
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  Speaker 3: I haven't seen a whole lot of that yet. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm still quite concerned that the number of liquidations are
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  Speaker 3: still exceedingly high for small businesses at the moment. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it is concerning. That just adds another aspect into the
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  Speaker 3: mix and what's basically been a perfect storm for businesses
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  Speaker 3: of the past few years. But you know, you can
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  Speaker 3: live in hope and hopefully, you know, these small businesses
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  Speaker 3: will find a way out, and we know that they're resilient,
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  Speaker 3: And I guess another point is when you know, when
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  Speaker 3: we see some industries go offshore, which we've seen over
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  Speaker 3: the last thirty or forty years in New Zealand. There's
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  Speaker 3: always new types of businesses emerging, you know, and New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand's really paving the way and the software the software space.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, things aren't.
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  Speaker 2: Good To end on a positive note. Thanks so much, Dane,
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  Speaker 2: appreciate your time. That was by New Zealand Made Executive
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  Speaker 2: Director Dane Ambler.
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