Small maritime businesses getting bigger

Small maritime businesses getting bigger

15 September 2016

The first report of its kind shows New Zealand’s small businesses (0-19 employees) engaged in fishing, off-shore aquaculture, and water transport are small but starting to get bigger.

The Director of Maritime NZ, Keith Manch, said the Ministry of Transport’s report shows an overall trend of a sector that declined until three or four years ago, then plateaued, and is now slowly rebounding and becoming more corporate.

The report, Business Structures of Small Commercial Maritime Operators, maps changes in small fishing, aquaculture, and water transport businesses from 2000 to 2015.

Mr Manch said one of the trends has been a gradual decline in the number of small businesses, while the average number of employees is slowly increasing, though is still small because most businesses are owner-operators with no staff.

There has also been a marked increase in businesses registered as limited liability companies, along with a corresponding drop in individual ownership and partnerships.

Some important characteristics as at February 2015 include:

• small businesses made up 98 percent of all fishing, aquaculture, and water transport businesses

• while small businesses are on average getting bigger, 75 percent were still operating with no employees at all and 20 percent with one to five employees

• there were around 1,860 small businesses and they employed 1,320 people

• the fishing industry accounted for 68 percent of small maritime businesses (1,269) and 50 percent of their employees (660)

• 30 large businesses made up 2 percent of the sector but 56 percent of employees (1,780).

The report is available on the Maritime NZ website.

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