Let’s Keep it Local Te Puke message to the fore once more

Te Puke Economic Development Group managing director Mark Boyle with the original Let’s Keep it Local signage. Photo / George Novak

Let’s Keep it Local isn’t a one-time message.

The Te Puke Economic Development Group (EDG) initiative — launched in 2020 after the initial Covid-19 pandemic lockdown — is to be given a dusting down and another push.

The campaign included profiling local businesses and the importance of supporting the local economy.

Te Puke EDG managing director Mark Boyle says there is uncertainty to varying degrees in the sectors.

“In some respects there’s also quite a lot of certainty in that we still milk cows and we still pick fruit, but within those sectors, there is uncertainty as well.

“In service areas and in retail there are a couple of examples where there’s uncertainty and people’s uncertainty about building etc is probably under question with interest rates and all the rest of it — so there probably will be a bit of a tightening in some areas of the local economy.”

The result is that people’s discretionary spend is probably on the decline.

Mark says the thrust of the campaign is not to try to get people to spend what they don’t have, but to spend in the local economy.

“So we want to keep reinforcing this message that we have lots of businesses — please support them.”

The business profiles drew quite a following, says Mark.

“The second thing is, it gave [business] people the opportunity to say who they are and what they are doing. It gave them an opportunity to present themselves.”

He says the third aspect was that there was a “bit of a feel-good thing about it”.

“So we think it’s valuable to keep reinforcing to the local community that we have a lot of businesses and you should support them wherever possible.”

Mark accepts not everything can be bought in Te Puke, but says many things can and there is also a strong, busy service sector.

“We have banks BNZ and Westpac, lawyers and accountants, dentists and physios and all those sorts of people, the professional kinds of services.

“In terms of the main street of Te Puke we’ve got a florist, a whiteware seller, a bookshop, a clothes shop, building supplies — we’ve got a new ITM — we’ve got McDonald’s, KFC, so we’ve got international brands and we’ve got supermarkets.

“We’re a business town and we’re very well serviced. If you want to buy a suit then you’re going to have to go to Tauranga, so we don’t fill every gap, but we are still a business town that services basically a rural community.

“We’re not a destination town — we’re not Rotorua, we’re not Queenstown — and we don’t pretend to be.”