Healthy lift in local retail spend

BY PIERS FULLER

The purse strings are loosening as post-recession Wairarapa is on the spend again.

The latest figures from Paymark show that the region is spending more money on Eftpos than last year, with an increase well above the national average.

While the main centres experienced a collective increase of about 1.8 per cent in spending for the 12 months to February, Wairarapa saw its card spending grow by 4.4 per cent and the number of transactions rise 6.4 per cent.

Wairarapa was just behind the three leading regions in terms of year-on-year spend growth, which were Gisborne (8.6 per cent), Otago (5.6 per cent) and Waikato (4.6 per cent). Chairman of the Masterton Business Promotions Group, Callum Perry, of Perry's Mart, says the area's retail sector is coming out of the recession stronger and people need to remember to keep their money in the local economy.

"I think Wairarapa has taken all the hard knocks and we've got quite a robust retail group that's left. It is just reliant now on the locals actually seeing the benefits of shopping locally rather than going on adventure shopping,"' he says.

Spending declines were again experienced in housing-related sectors like furniture, hardware and appliances as well as clothing stores, with the only notable exception coming in the restaurant and cafe sector, which experienced growth of 7 per cent.

Masterton menswear retailer Trevor McKeown, of Intersection, says the Paymark figures should be taken with a grain of salt for while Eftpos transactions may have held firm, credit card transactions seemed to have dropped.

"From the point of view of households, that is actually a good thing because it means people are living within their means, whereas two-three years ago they were putting it on the card and worrying about it at some stage in the future," he says.

He believes the Wairarapa economy is very sensitive to wider economic conditions and a drop in the kiwi dollar would help exporters and the rural spending would increase.

"There's probably quite a few months yet to dig in and hang on by your fingernails to get through, but the long-term prospects are pretty good," he says.

He is generally optimistic about what the future holds.

"The town's in pretty good shape. When you look around there's very few businesses that have shut the doors. Probably less in the last 12 months than the previous two years," he says.

The extra spending outside the main population centres can be attributed to growth across two major non-discretionary categories: petrol and food outlets.

Paymark CEO, Simon Tong, says that early indicators for 2010 are a source of cautious optimism.

"The growth that we see in February's figures is encouraging, especially for the smaller regions. However, what this means in terms of continued, strong growth for the country as a whole remains to be seen."

The growth in the value of spending nationwide increased 2.3 per cent from the same month last year.

Wairarapa people spent $31 million through Eftpos last month.