Manawatu hospitality and retailers receive a boost

10 March 2016

Hospitality and retailers receive a boost

The quarterly MarketView statistics for the year ending January show spending is up in Palmerston North and Manawatū, Broadway continues to improve, Terrace End receives a big boost, and just under $60million was splurged in the fortnight before Christmas.

The Marketview report is commissioned every quarter by Central Economic Development Agency (CEDA). It provides an insight into retail spending in Manawatū for the three months to the end of January 2017. The data represents the total value of electronic card retail transactions. It’s based off hybrid data using BNZ cardholder data which has a 20% share in the New Zealand market and Paymark merchant data, which is New Zealand’s largest Eftpos network.

Overall, spending in the quarter to the end January 2017 grew 4.2% over the same period last year to $336 million, with transactions up 4.3%. At a national level, New Zealand’s retail spend grew 4.8% with the number of transactions up 5.8%.

CEDA Acting Chief Executive Linda Stewart says “the results show a buoyant economy, with significant increases from some domestic regions and internationally”.

Ms Stewart says the purple patch of popular events in recent months helped boost spending by visitors. There was a 20.8% increase in spending by Wellingtonians, a 17.5% increase in spending by Aucklanders and international spending increased by 15.7%.

71.2% of all spending locally was done by Manawatū locals, 12.6% were from other parts of the Horizons region, 15.5% from the rest of New Zealand and 0.8% from international visitors.

Retailers in all parts of the city and district received a spending boost. However, standout locations include Terrace End (Albert Street east) which grew 33.7%, Manawatū (excluding Feilding and Sanson) up 16.1% and Broadway (The Square to Princess Street) up 12.5%.

Most sectors recorded an increase. The hospitality sector led the charge up 12.1% to $21.06m and accommodation up 8.2% to $5.25m. Only two of the eleven sectors monitored recorded a drop – the appliance sector was down 11.5% to $7.44m, and furniture and flooring was down 8.4% to $4.08m

Ms Stewart says that while Christmas seems like a long time ago now, the report has revealed that just under $60million was splashed out in the fortnight before Christmas in Palmerston North and Manawatū.

The Marketview report provides business owners with insights that will give them the confidence to target new consumer groups and to choose opening hours. The report highlights that most purchases occur between midday and 4pm and that Fridays are the busiest day of the week.

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