Skip to main content

Strong employment and more stable dairy prices are driving growth in retail spend across Manawatū Region, according to the latest Marketview Quarterly Report.

CEDA commissions the report on a quarterly basis to keep a finger on the pulse of retail spending and trends in Manawatū.

The report reveals significant growth in spending across the rest of Manawatū (all areas in Manawatū District outside Feilding and Sanson) at 40.8% to $5.2m. Feilding experienced an increase of 7.2% and Sanson saw a 6.6% rise.

“Understanding retail spend, where it occurs and how it differs each quarter is a great way to track growth and confidence within our region,” said Linda Stewart CEDA chief executive.

“The increase in spending reflects the better prices for the dairy industry and other primary producers and this is having a flow on effect with people spending more.”

The report’s findings are extremely positive for the Manawatū District in particular, Manawatū District Council Economic Development Advisor, Stacey Bell said.

The value of spending in Feilding reached $43million in the quarter and $2.7million in Sanson.

“This report highlights positive gains in spending when compared to the previous year across all locations monitored, which will be in part attributed to the healthier state of Dairy returns in the December quarter in 2017 compared to the same period in 2016,” she said.

The growth in spending was not as strong across Palmerston North City, however the city does account for a much higher proportion of spend. Spending on Broadway increased almost 5% to just more than $10 million and Palmerston North CBD experienced by 1.4% to $92.6 million.

“There are a variety of factors at play in the weakness in Palmerston North spending compared with the national growth rate,” Peter Crawford, Palmerston North City Council Economic Policy Advisor said.

The national growth rate was 4.9% up on this quarter a year ago, compared to Palmerston North’s 3.8% rise.

In the same period last year, the region experienced 20.3% growth in spending from the Wellington region, which was in part due to the temporary closure of Queensgate Shopping Centre in Lower Hutt following the Kaikoura Earthquake. Visitors from Auckland also drove a 17.3% increase in spending from that region, which was helped by Jetstar flights coming in.

Locals continue to be the most loyal spenders in the region, with a 6.7% increase in local spending, compared to 2.2% growth, last year. Local cardholders spent almost 75% at local shops, compared to the national average of shoppers spending 64% locally.

An area of weakness for Palmerston North is in food retailing, Mr Crawford said. This suggests less people are coming into Palmerston North to do their supermarket shopping. Food retailing across the Manawatu-Wanganui region, excluding Horowhenua, rose by 4.9% in the three months ended January, while Palmerston North rose by just 2.5%.

In terms of the highest weekly spend, Christmas shoppers were out in full force and the week of December 24th took out the top spot.

Find the full Manawatū Region Quarterly Report, here.

For more information:
[email protected]
06 350 1830

Ō Mātou Kaihāpai | Our Supporters

We’re a well connected team and couldn’t make such great things happen without our supporters.