Moving your business to Tauranga is no small consideration. The upheaval, the cost, the hours spent establishing new relationships. And yet, more and more companies are doing just that.
The Bay of Plenty’s innovative Priority One economic development agency has followed its determined business attraction strategy since its inception in 2001, and in a targeted way since 2011. The agency works to make it easier for companies to relocate to the Bay of Plenty to realise the competitive advantages on offer, by smoothing the process and helping make important connections.
As at this week, Priority One is working with 18 firms actively considering the move to the Bay. It is estimated those companies have the potential to create 352 new local jobs and pump $16.4 million of capital expenditure into the region. Those who have already moved to the Bay include Jenkins Freshpac Systems and Brother International.
Others, such as South Africa’s Multifid Technology International, have chosen Tauranga as the site of their New Zealand offices.
While shifting your business to another location may seem a daunting prospect, especially when you consider the effort and logistics required, there is one consideration a new employer in the Bay of Plenty need not worry about: the highest calibre professional staff.
Every day our Tauranga employment agency takes enquiries from clever, talented, driven and successful people around the globe who desperately want to live in the Bay of Plenty. They hope to apply their big-city experience to fulfilling careers in a smaller city, where families enjoy sunshine, beaches and a laidback holiday-every- day vibe.
But at this stage there are nowhere near enough Bay-based jobs for all of these exceptional professional candidates.
We have talent on our books that would be snapped up in a nanosecond in a more fluid job market. These jobseekers have high-level experience, often in demanding offshore roles, and would be capable of using that experience to help their new employer achieve previously unattainable gains. These are the types of candidates who could offer your business an entirely fresh perspective – but they don’t want to live in Auckland.
Maybe they’re onto something.
We’ve already established you’d have the privilege of cherry-picking from exceptional international-standard talent for professional roles if you moved your business here. You’d find the Bay of Plenty is characterised by a talented and happy workforce where long-term loyalty is the norm. And you’d find, as my family and I did, that Tauranga offers a warm welcome, an incomparable lifestyle and huge opportunity.
If you set up in the new Tauriko Business Estate, you’d be based just 10km, on a 100km/h road, from the largest port in New Zealand. Kiwifruit and avocados are booming, the Port of Tauranga – which handles five times the export volume of Ports of Auckland – continues to outstrip all competitors, and tourism is a relentless earner for this region.
There is a healthy spread of jobs for wage earners here, but salaried positions are rare and heavily-contested. You could bring much-needed professional jobs to our vibrant local economy.
The Bay is a growing player in the New Zealand economy, but it still isn’t anywhere near as large and influential as it could be. Perhaps you should consider bringing your experience, and those exciting job vacancies, to Tauranga.
You’ll soon wonder what took you so long.