A positive outlook for Marlborough Business bites

Scoring App Startup Champions

The future is looking positive for Marlborough.

The quarterly ASB Regional Scoreboard economic review has Marlborough ranked 4th behind Taranaki, Canterbury and Otago. It is the only region to see annual growth in building consents alongside plenty of upcoming construction projects in the pipeline, stabilising housing prices and a 35 per cent increase in wine export values.

Pete says despite the struggles the national economy may be going through, Marlborough is relatively insulated economically.

“The region is looking positive for the next few years - there will be challenges for Marlborough just like around the world … a lot of businesses are going well and looking to employ more people than last year.

“Marlborough is effectively at total employment, but we have high rates of people not in education, employment, or training - reducing that is a real focus for the Regional Skills Leadership Group and government bodies.

“However, we are just at the start of this recession, and don’t know how it will affect us,” he explains. The Chamber of Commerce and Marlborough District Council are launching their next quarterly business confidence survey. Pete is curious about the results after confident responses last time.

“I think confidence will have gone down from November’s survey from 60 per cent of businesses being optimistic … you see 4th on the Regional Scoreboard, so it will be fascinating how that’s reflected here.

“There’s classic unease of an election year from both sides of the job”. divide worried what happens if their party doesn’t get in which is expected in election year.

Pete points out large projects powering a strong future in Marlborough’s construction sector are attracting people to the region.

“The biggest challenge is finding staff for those construction jobs because we are short - and then how housing and medical care handle new arrivals”.

Picton is also set to reap the rewards from construction worker spending and the increased capacity for ships for the long term. But it will be a mixed bag in terms of visitor numbers, Pete reckons, as ferry terminal workers fill up hotels and motels, limiting the number of rooms available for tourists.

“However, the new terminal and ferries alongside other investments will bring massive longterm benefits,” he says.

Marlborough, alongside the rest of the South Island, has seen housing prices stay relatively resilient to market pressures.

Pete says a fundamental shortage housing needs to be solved.

But he believes the addition of hundreds of aged care units through Summerset will ease the pressure.

ScoreSync, an app that tracks the lighthearted competitive nature of families or friends, has won Marlborough’s Techstars Startup Weekend. The ‘electronic scorecard for tracking competitive gloaters’ beat out 4 other teams over the 54 hour competition with teams delivering product pitches, business model and product development and even basic prototypes alongside mentoring and constructive advice from local entrepreneurs.

“Local economic performance actively drives community vibrancy and makes a tangible difference – wine is 20 per cent of the local economy so great wine harvests like 2022 and 2023 sees new income flows directly into retail and hospitality businesses and when those businesses are doing well, everyone keeps their

“We were the only region to see a rise in building consents, but just the Summerset development drove loads, so you do have to be careful on those numbers”.

“However, five-to-ten year construction projects - the half a billion-dollar Ferry Terminal development, hundreds of millions into Summerset, the Combined Colleges project at $100 million plus – drive the local economy forward”.

“The estimated half of future residents from Marlborough itself means their current residences will be going into the market,” he explains.

“Building that many new residences releases others on to the market and keeps prices sensible, and the ‘crash’ we’re seeing is the market starting to return to where prices should be”.

“It isn’t all doom and gloom, there’s a lot of good things going on in the region and those will be driving our economy for the near future.”

Grow Your Governance Business Workshop

Angel Investors Marlborough is working to help Marlborough’s small businesses and start-ups, offering a workshop to boost governance processes. “There is value for founders, managers, directors, and aspiring directors in learning about how growth-focused governance board operate, and how to get the most from your board”, says AIM manager Brian Dawson. Governance for Growth is being held in Blenheim on Tuesday July 25, 10am to 4.30pm$50 plus GST for an individual or $100 plus GST for a booking of three.