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PRINT NZ HELPING HAND: CELEBRATING OUR SUCCESSES AND EACH OTHER IN A BUSY YEAR
Celebrating our successes and each other in a busy year
A recap of 2024 shows PrintNZ involvement across the industry.
-IAIN MACINTYRE
Coming together as an industry to celebrate business success and recognise individuals and companies making a difference remains ever-more important given the recent challenging times.
Ruth Cobb, chief executive for PrintNZ, believes that despite ongoing economic issues and business challenges, it was uplifting to see the print and packaging industry continue to embrace excellence and seize opportunity to engage joyfully.
She says, “Over 50 People In Print Awards and 11 Rising Stars Awards were bestowed in our first industry awards event of 2024, held in conjunction with New Zealand Printer in Auckland back in April.
“An audience of over 100 recognised the wide range of talent, skills, knowledge, experience, and diversity across our print and packaging community that is represented by these worthy winners.
It is important that we recognise the people that make our industry tick – we are nothing without them.
“Then an audience of about 400 enjoyed another fantastic Pride In Print Awards night in Wellington in July, where we recognised the world-class work that continues to be produced by our sector, as well as those excelling in training and sustainability areas.”
Among notable winners were:
Pride In Print Supreme Award – MCC Albany
PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year – Levi Lindsey (MCC Auckland)
PrintNZ Trainer of the Year – Cheyne Lesa (Blue Star Jackson)
PrintNZ Training Company of the Year – Inkwise Print Partners
Pride In Print Business Awards Category – Gratpak
“And just recently, we had over 250 attendees across the two Women In Print events held in Auckland and Christchurch. Those were really good numbers that show the continued importance of this initiative to provide a positive opportunity for women in our industry to network.”
Developing our future workforce
Thanking her hard-working team for their ongoing commitment and diligence to best serve the needs of members, Ruth points out that a major focus during the year was a targeted career opportunities campaign officially launched with secondary schools.
She says, “The importance of the print and packaging industry continuing to attract and train its own workforce cannot be understated. Over the past 12 months PrintNZ has put substantial resources into educating school careers advisors and targeted groups of students about the industry and working with them to identify potential opportunities for a career in print and packaging.
“Our work in this space is continuing to develop, so that we can form our own pipeline of trainees who understand the role that print and packaging plays and the amazing opportunities the industry provides, particularly via the apprenticeship pathway.
“We have been successful in placing a number of students into print and packaging businesses already and look forward to continuing this in 2025.”
Renewed lobbying drive
Ensuring the sector’s voice was heard by the new Government and officials on key issues remained another focal point for the team, with notable issues addressed including:
Vocational education
Immigration
Energy
NZ Post
Ruth continues, “Lobbying on behalf of our members is always an important role for PrintNZ, but these endeavours have taken on even great focus this year due to the late-2023 change in government.
“It had been hoped that with the change in power, positive policy developments would be seen promptly, but the complexities of a tripartite government as well as lingering economic factors have combined to stymie progress.
“We will remain diligent in our representation of the print and packaging sector to underscore its importance to the supply chain and role as a major employer in New Zealand, and therefore identify and address what impact potential policy moves may have.”
New membership
Although PrintNZ membership numbers saw a decline in 2024 for the first time in many years, Ruth says a “good number” of new members were also attracted to the association in 2024.
She says, “That decline was largely due to a number of businesses having either closed or merged as a consequence of the economic downturn and slow recovery. However, we still managed to sign up 20 new members over the course of the year.
“It is clear that print and packaging businesses continue to recognise the benefits of belonging to an industry association, particularly during difficult times.
“On behalf of PrintNZ, I sincerely thank our members for their ongoing, strong support of the association.”
Thank you to Tony Sayle
Ruth Cobb pays special tribute to immediate past president of PrintNZ, Tony Sayle, who recently retired from Jenkins Group and stepped down from the association’s Board.
She says, “Tony’s commitment to our industry has been outstanding. His passion for training, understanding of business and considered approach have made his contribution invaluable.
“He has steered the ship with a steady hand through some quite challenging times, notably the merger of the Communications and Media Industry Training Organisation (CMITO) into Competenz, and then the unprecedented challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“On behalf of the industry I take this opportunity to wish Tony all the best in his retirement.”
She notes that Tony will nonetheless continue to keep a hand in the industry, having recently accepted an appointment as chair of Trust4Skills. She says, “The trust is responsible for allocating grants to PrintNZ members for training and providing opportunities for individuals and businesses to improve their skill base. Again, Tony’s sage advice, alongside the other trustees, will be well placed in ensuring that the fund continues to fulfil its purpose.”
Positive signs
A range of emerging positive indicators are raising hopes the New Zealand economy is finally on an upwards trajectory, but businesses should prepare for progressive rather than instantaneous gains.
Ruth says, “There is no doubt that we are seeing a number of good financial signs. We have had a couple of significant recent interest rates drops with another pending, and inflation has now returned to the Reserve Bank’s stated target range.
“The print and packaging sector is very much a barometer of the country’s overall economic state, given the reach of our members’ work in all manner of business activity.
“But given how weak the economy has been and where things currently stand for our members and businesses overall, the most pragmatic approach appears to be to continue to keep a firm hand on the tiller for now as a gradual improvement rolls out.”
In this vein, Ruth comments that a recent mantra for business of “Survive till ‘25” in order to navigate the weak economic environment and then thrive has in some quarters moved to “No fix till ‘26”.
Supporting the proposition, the Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) update for July-September noted that when comparing the quarter year-on-year:
Sales fell 2.7 per cent
Jobs rose 6.6 per cent
Wages rose 2.8 per cent
“Overall, the latest XSBI results are an early indication that the New Zealand economy remained weak in the September quarter, following the decline in GDP in the June quarter,” stated the update.
This is broadly in line with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s view that economic growth is weak, in part because of low productivity growth, but mostly due to weak consumer spending and business investment. High-frequency indicators point to continued subdued growth in the near term.
Ruth adds it was good to see October’s ANZ New Zealand Business Outlook report a five point rise in confidence to a 10-year high of +66 but notes its counter observation that the pressure remains on.
She says, “Past activity and employment are still in negative territory economywide. The Outlook stated that there are still more firms saying activity and employment in the last month was lower than a year earlier than are saying it was higher. That is particularly true of the retail sector. This likely reflects that for consumers, the positive impact of lower interest rates is being offset by worsening job security.”
Ruth says, “The Business Outlook survey suggests the labour market will turn upwards too, but given the labour market lags activity considerably, there are still some hard yards to traverse before then.”
A New Year beckons
Ruth looks positively towards 2025. She says, “All of the economic issues and business challenges are not going to instantly disappear, but we can expect to continue on a gradual, upwards trajectory together. There is definitely cautious optimism coming through as things continue to improve.
“The print and packaging sector is a hardy industry, and we will continue to persevere and deliver the world-class products for which we are known. And rest assured that PrintNZ will continue to roll our sleeves up to deliver the bestpossible service to and representation for our valued members.”
