Venture Timaru chief executive admits agency could do better in attracting new businesses

Friday, 7 March 2025

The chief executive of the district’s economic and tourism agency has admitted it needs to do a better job of attracting new businesses to the area.

Venture Timaru chief executive Nigel Davenport’s comments came as he presented its quarterly report to December, at an extraordinary Timaru District Council meeting on Tuesday.

In December, the agency’s then chairman Anthony Brien was grilled by councillor Stu Piddington at a meeting who asked what was being done to drive development in the district, suggesting there had been plenty of talk, but no action.

On Tuesday, Davenport said the quarterly report had been provided in a new format that “better communicates” the agency’s work and progress.

This included a traffic light system which highlighted the areas Venture Timaru was “behind in’’ and what it needed to and would do better, specifically around business attraction.

“We acknowledge we need to do more in that space, hence the update in the quarterly report around the Make Timaru Your Business campaign and the steps we’re taking there,’’ he said.

The campaign, to be “ignited’’ in the first quarter of the year is described as multi-pronged with the district promoted as “the place to do business’’.

It includes advertisements and a dedicated Make Timaru Your Business page on the Venture Timaru website.

The agency would engage with a minimum of 10 new business opportunities or referral sources per month to “relentlessly target and secure new to district businesses’’, the report says.

Timaru District mayor Nigel Bowen said he liked the new reporting format, which he described as “quite snipper-like in its approach’’.

“It shows that you’ve certainly been listening to where we’re thinking and I know the board’s done a lot of work and I want to acknowledge the work you and the board have done,’’ he said.

Councillor Scott Shannon said he had waited a couple of years to “actually see some real actions, some plans about delivering on, I suppose, more than just being visionary, actually having some actual actions behind strategies’’.

When asked by councillor Michelle Pye about the 2025/26 cruise ship season, Venture Timaru operations and destination manager Di Hay confirmed 13 ships were scheduled to visit, to date.

Pye also questioned the targeted attraction of business events and conferences, asking if the agency actively sought out events to be hosted in the district, to which Hay said yes.

However, the issue was the district did not have the hotel capacity to host guests.

“If you gave me a hotel we’d be able to fill it.’’

The agency had completed “a high level update of the accommodation sector which we distributed to existing developers and interested parties and four hotel operators’’, Davenport said.

Bowen said the town had two, but Hay said the issue was in having a greater number of rooms at a consistent level of standard.

“The really classic example is Kaikōura telling us their 70-bed hotel has been a game-changer for them, partly because they can bring buses of tour groups to town - 40 people boom you’re all in one place,’’ she said.

“But if you have a conference facility, even though we can spread them around, with the hotel I’d quite like an events centre as well please.’’

Pye also queried the agency’s need to operate with a “chunky reserve amount’’.

While she understood the need for reserves for normal business, “you come to us every year and go ‘here’s our budget, please can we have this money?’ and we allocate that to you’’.

The balance sheet to December 31 shows Venture Timaru has total current assets of more than $1 million and liabilities of $510,900, with accumulated funds of $579,000.

Davenport said the agency had a reserves policy of holding three months of its “operating budget, our operating income, in reserves’’.

He said it was important this was done so that it operated in a prudent manner but it “actually recognises the many other income streams that are committed to and incurred over longer periods as well’’.

The agency had annual funding but it also had multi-year projects and some of those had “dropped away’’ this year.

He said the agency had ongoing commitments like any business, over and above variable costs and its unallocated reserves at the end of December were about $150,000.

But Pye said they were unallocated as Venture Timaru received funding in advance.

Davenport pointed out the report’s balance sheet section titled funding unallocated, which was $401,800, was incorrectly titled and should read funding allocated.

Davenport said that amount included the regional apprenticeship initiative funding which had been received but not gone out, and about $50,000 of the events fund which, as at December had been committed but had not been paid out because the event had not taken place, and then “some rats and mice’’ items.

He said it was important to hold a level of reserves as it “gives us that flexibility to do things really, really quickly without having to come back cap in hand’’.

He said there was a $200,000 economic development fund that council rolled over every year, and “the only commitment that we’ve come to council for that in the last eight years has been the commitment you’ve given to us to help support up to $60,000 for the next three years for the cruise sector’’.

“So aside from that, it enables us to do things like some of the new events.’’

Councillors received and noted the quarterly report.