A lively trading and shopping centre is very important.
By Tanya Jones-Blok
We talk a lot about shopping local in Mercury Bay. Eat local. Buy local. Support our cafés and retailers. And we absolutely should. But there’s another part of our economy that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much – and without it, a lot of those other businesses simply wouldn’t function.
Construction
If you took the builders and the trades out of the Coromandel, the Coromandel would crash. That might sound dramatic, but it’s true.
Think about it
Every morning there’s a row of Utes outside the café near our office with ‘tradies’ grabbing their coffee and a pie before heading to site. At the end of most days, the Utes are lined up again, outside the pub. That’s not just a social observation – that’s money circulating in our town.
When a local build happens, it’s not just one company working. It’s electricians, plumbers, painters, flooring suppliers, timber yards, kitchens, joinery, hardware stores. It’s apprentices learning on the tools. It’s suppliers delivering materials. It’s couriers running up and down the peninsula.
It’s an entire ecosystem
According to Richard Warwick of HAMR Homes, engaging local contractors promotes accountability and upholds quality standards. In smaller communities, reputation is paramount, and income earned by local residents is more likely to be reinvested within the community. Our area is home to highly skilled tradespeople, and it is important for property owners from outside the region to recognize that their projects are managed competently by local professionals.
Over the past three years, construction has been under real pressure. The slowdown in Auckland and Tauranga hasn’t fully bounced back, and we’re seeing more unfamiliar vans in town. Builders travelling further afield for work. That’s understandable in a downturn, everyone is looking to keep their teams busy.
But there’s a bigger picture
When local trades miss out consistently, it doesn’t just affect one company. It affects apprentices who might decide there’s no future here. It affects young families who relocate for steadier work. It affects the service businesses that rely on a strong building sector to keep their doors open year-round.
One of our local plumbers, Matarangi Plumbing put it plainly: Supporting a local trade in a community like Mercury Bay is an investment in the area itself.
Urban Homes Thames Coromandel
Local trades are often smaller business owners who rely on the community to keep their services running and that support helps keep essential skills and services within town, ensuring it remains self-sufficient and resilient for years to come.
This isn’t about shutting the gate or telling people who they can and can’t use. It’s about awareness.
When your friends come to stay and say, “We’ve bought a section in Whitianga, who should we use?”, that recommendation matters. When new residents arrive and are weighing up options, local knowledge makes a difference.
Construction quietly underpins a huge part of our regional economy. It keeps skills here. It keeps apprentices employed. It keeps suppliers moving stock. It keeps money circulating in Mercury Bay instead of leaking out of it.
Retail and hospitality are visible. Building is foundational.
As the Mercury Bay Business Association, we’ll continue supporting all sectors of our business community. But broadening the “support local” conversation to include services and trades is important.
Because when work leaves the region, so do opportunities. And once that capacity is gone, it’s not easy to rebuild.
Tanya is a committee member of Mercury Bay Business Association.
