BNZ Seeks New Zealand’s Next Market Success Stories

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has today launched a nationwide search for New Zealand’s next market made success stories (bnz.co.nz/marketmade).

With four prizes up for grabs, the Market Made competition is open to any small business run in a farmers, craft, weekend, or artisan market across New Zealand, and with aspirations to take their business to new heights.

BNZ Executive, Customer, Products, and Services, Karna Luke, says, “New Zealand has an amazing track record of innovative and passionate people who first started their businesses as market makers, putting in the hard yards on weekends, setting up early, and building relationships directly with their customers before taking their business to new heights.

“BNZ is New Zealand’s business bank and we’re passionate about partnering with New Zealand SMEs on their growth journey. We’re excited to see how Market Made can help some smaller weekend businesses take the next step and grow into fully-fledged all-week enterprises,” says Luke.

The Market Made prize package has more than $35,000 in prizes up for grabs for the top four entries. Each of the prizes includes a cash business boost of $5,000, a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phone, a BNZ Business Financial Healthcheck, and paid promotion on BNZ social channels to the value of $2,500.

Market Made, follows the launch of BNZ Pay, the latest, low-cost innovation in payment technology for SME businesses. The tap-on-phone technology transforms any mobile android device into a payment terminal. With the lowest fees in the market, the pricing model has been designed to suit the needs of SME and seasonal businesses, removing the burden to invest in another device.

A recent Reserve Bank of New Zealand report on cash and payments data confirmed that consumer preferences are changing and increasingly shifting away from cash, which Karna admits can be challenging for market-based businesses.

“Businesses, especially those early in their journey, need to be prepared and able to take payments from their customers in the ways they want to pay them to enable growth – that’s where we know BNZ Pay can help,” says Karna.

“The only thing better than low cost is free, and that’s what we’re doing. BNZ Pay has no monthly costs to merchants who settle into a BNZ account until January 2024. After that, BNZ Pay will only cost $10 per month, and only in the months it’s used. That’s less than half the cost of the next cheapest option and means a reduction in overheads, which will support more small Kiwi market businesses to thrive,” adds Luke.

Market Made entries are open to market-based business between 10 and 31 October – enter now by filling in a simple questionnaire at bnz.co.nz/marketmade. Winners will be judged by an expert panel before being notified and announced in November.

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