Exporters undeterred by rampant kiwi, shows survey

The rampant kiwi dollar has not been enough to deter many businesses from wanting to export more, say the results of a new survey.

Businesses are keen to export and confident about their ability to sell overseas, says the study, carried out by the Icehouse, Auckland University's business incubator, for the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern).

Asked if they wanted to export more, about three quarters of the firms which answered either agreed or strongly agreed.

The study looked at 260 firms, about two thirds of them in Auckland, with most of the rest in other parts of the North Island.

Most of the businesses were relatively small; about two-thirds of them had between one and 50 employees and about half had turnover of less than $10 million a year.

However, most thought they were well placed to increase their export earnings.

More than three quarters of the firms either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea that exporting was a waste of money, and only a minority thought that it was a risky proposition.

Half thought their business already generated enough cashflow to pay for export initiatives and more than half thought they had the borrowing power to raise money to boost overseas sales.

More than half thought their firms had the talent to export more and about three quarters said their operational systems could handle more volume.

When asked about their plans, more than half the firms which had export goals said they planned to increase the number of countries or areas they export to.

Another 26 per cent said they planned to increase exports through partnerships or alliances.

One area where businesses felt shaky was on their knowledge of the competition. While the vast majority - over 80 per cent - felt they had extensive knowledge of their competitors in this country, less than 40 per cent agreed that they had extensive knowledge of their overseas competitors.

And the figures suggest that, while businesses are keen, there is some way to go before that enthusiasm bears fruit. Only 19 per cent of the companies surveyed made half or more of their sales overseas and 37 per cent made no export sales at all.

A detailed account of the survey's findings will be released on Friday, at the "Go Global Summit".