Xero's building in Taranaki St, central Wellington.
Xero's building in Taranaki St, central Wellington.
Xero appears to be reducing its presence in Wellington, where it was founded by Rod Drury in 2006.
The firm is advertising 2810sq m of its five-storey, 6500sq m Taranaki St building for sublease, by negotiation.
Last year, the cloud accounting firm staged a restructure that saw its global headcountreduced by 15% or 758 from 5080 at March 31, 2023 to 4322 as of March 31, 2024, according to its annual report.
“Xero is not leaving Wellington and we are firmly committed to Aotearoa New Zealand and all the regions we operate in here, as our heritage market,” a Xero spokeswoman said.
“We have consolidated some office space in Auckland, Wellington and some other locations outside of Aotearoa New Zealand to best optimise our physical footprint, manage utilisation and encourage greater team collaboration, networking and connection.”
The Taranaki St building housed some 650 Xero staff when then Finance Minister Grant Robertson opened it in 2018. The firm would not break down its staff numbers by region or city today.
The restructure helped fuel a comeback result for Xero, which reported a net profit of $174.6 million for the year to March 31 versus its FY2023 loss of $113.5m. The firm reported it had added 80 staff in the last few months of FY2024 and recently launched a generative AI assistant. Its ASX-listed stock was recently trading at A$135 ($148), representing a 22 per cent gain over the past year.
Datacom House in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.
Datacom subleasing Auckland space due to hybrid shift
Meanwhile, Datacom is subleasing the fourth floor of its $86.2m building at Auckland’s Wynyard quarter.
“The main reason is that we simply don’t need the space anymore given many of our team have adopted a hybrid work model and we have ample space across the other levels,” a Datacom spokeswoman said.
“Subleasing was a good option from a cost and usage perspective, and we have the potential to reclaim the space if our needs change in the future.”
The IT services firm moved into the 17,000sq m new-build in 2017, taking floors one to five of the six-storey building.
The 2662sq m fourth floor is being offered for sublease, with price by negotiation.
The privately-held firm (55% owned by the rich-list Holdsworth family and 45% by the NZ Super Fund) reported 6328 full-time equivalent staff at the end of FY2024 - 5% fewer than FY2023. The reduction was put down to attrition.
Late last year, the company moved its 1300 Wellington staff into new “future of work” offices in the Asteron Building.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
