Xero : 25/02/2021 - First month of small business revenue decline in New Zealand since May

MEDIA RELEASE

First month of small business revenue decline in New Zealand since May

Year-on-year small business revenues fell 6% while jobs up 1.9%

Wellington, New Zealand - February 25, 2021 -​X​ero​, the global small business platform, today

released its Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) data for January 2021 showing New Zealand small business revenue was down by 6% year-on-year, while jobs were up 1.9%.

This drop follows seven months of consecutive revenue growth (June - December).

Xero's Managing Director for New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Craig Hudson, says this downturn in revenue is a sign Kiwis need to continue supporting local businesses.

"We often see small business revenue fall in January due to the holiday period, with businesses closing for the Christmas and summer break. It's always a tough month and Covid-19 has made it even harder this year. It's a good wake up call that New Zealanders need to continue to support our small businesses," says Hudson.

Small business revenue dropped year-on-year in January across all the regions, with Queenstown remaining the hardest hit (-23.2%) followed by Otago (-14.7%), Waikato (-7.8%), Bay of Plenty (-5.6%),

Hawkes Bay (-4.6%) and Auckland (-4%).

Hudson notes it's also important to pay small business invoices on time so they can better manage cash flow. He is pleased to see payments are 1.4 days faster than pre-crisis levels.

Year-on-year job figures up

Job figures in January were up 1.9% year-on-year, despite falling 4.7% month-on-month in January.

Hudson says the month-on-month drop was to be expected: "We saw a nearly identical trend at the start of 2020 as well. Along with seasonal work ending, it's also likely to reflect Kiwis taking time off over the Christmas period."

Hospitality jobs still remain below pre-crisis levels (-7.5% in January), while all other industries have continued to recover jobs including real estate (+6.7%), retail trade (+5.9%), construction (+5.1%), manufacturing (+4.1%) and professional services (+1.4%).

"Outside of the hospitality sector, it's encouraging to see job numbers remaining positive. This extends to the regions as well, with the exception of Auckland and Queenstown, which fell 3.7% and 4.8% respectively when compared to this time a year ago," says Hudson.

"It's remarkable how similar job figures are year-on-year considering the COVID-19 pandemic and everything the small business sector went through last year.

"It's a testament to how dedicated our small businesses have been towards looking after their staff, and the support they've got from initiatives like the wage subsidies."

For further information on the Xero Small Business Insights December metrics please refer to the XSBI ​

Update for New Zealand.

​

ENDS

About Xero

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses with 2.45 million subscribers ​

globally. Through Xero, small business owners and their advisors have access to real-time financial data any time, anywhere and on any device. Xero offers an ecosystem of over 800 third-party apps and 200 plus connections to banks and other financial partners. In 2020 and 2021, Xero was included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and in 2020, Xero was recognised byI​DC MarketScape​ as a leader in its worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled small business finance and accounting applications vendor assessment.

About Xero Small Business Insights

The Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) program provides analysis of the sector's health, with metrics based on anonymised, aggregated data drawn from hundreds of thousands of subscribers i​ n partnership with AlphaBeta Australia (part of Accenture). The result is a picture of business conditions ​

that's more accurate than most private surveys, which have a far smaller sample size, and more frequently updated than other New Zealand data on small business. X​ ero is currently producing a series of specialised monthly metrics which analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the small business sector.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialised skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions - underpinned by the world's largest delivery network - Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders.

Note to the editor

Previous iterations of the XSBI data have listed snapshots of data from the time it was captured. Some of these historical data points change as bookkeepers and accountants finalise their clients' accounts, which can impact the specifics of the percentages.

Contact

Natalie Benning

Head of Communications - [e-mail] 021 026 19604