Port of Tauranga has ridden the waves of recession to post a record profit of $73.5 million, with three out of every four major New Zealand exporters opting to use Tauranga over Auckland.
Fresh from being named as one of the world's top 10 ports for its speed of handling containers, the port's latest annual result showed it was going from strength to strength.
The country's biggest export port has defied difficult international trading conditions since the recession started to bite. The volume of cargo handled across the wharves reached 18.5 million tonnes - an increase of nearly 52 per cent on the boom days of 2006.
Port CEO Mark Cairns paid a tribute to the "can-do culture at the heart of our business" for the strong result, driven by the container trade growing by a third to reach nearly 800,000 units.
The result underlined the huge importance of the port on the regional and national economy, employing about 1180 people inside the port gates. Flow-on employment from people who benefited from the spending power of the port and its employees multiplied to a total of 2900 jobs.