NZBusiness Magazine June Issue – OUT NOW

If you’re an Auckland business owner, a lot of what you’ll read in this month’s cover story will come as no surprise. Depending on where your business is located, you may have already been experiencing the frustrations and fallout from Auckland’s construction boom – it seems there is a tower crane on almost every commercial corner, and a lane blocked on every street.

The purpose of our ‘City of Cones’ story is to acknowledge the all-round difficulties Auckland’s growth is causing businesses; to give the issue some perspective and to provide some practical solutions in order to successfully trade through the disruption. 

There is help out there if you ask for it.

Auckland has never seen growth on the scale it’s witnessing today – construction is happening everywhere you look – and the growing pains are being felt by its citizens and businesses. 

Some pain involves major upheaval. I was talking to a staff member at a long-established soft furnishings store on Auckland’s North Shore just a few weekends ago, who informed me that a Council decision on a carpark’s removal meant they were being forced to close their store completely and move to another suburb.

For a business that’s disruption on a major scale.

Sure, the disruption happening in Auckland doesn’t even come close to the catastrophic scenes Christchurch businesses faced after the earthquakes – but it’s still major in terms of numbers of businesses and employees affected.

The recent announcement by Auckland Council and central government that a total of $28 billion will be spent improving Auckland’s transport network over the next decade will be welcomed by many business owners (that’s an awful lot of traffic cones!).

As for those fuel levies – electric vehicle owners will be rubbing their hands with glee.

But you can’t help get the feeling that all this extra spending is still too little too late. 

We’re in catch-up mode and Auckland will grow at an even faster rate over the next ten years. 

We’re still at least a generation away from getting on top of the problem.

Enjoy this month’s read!