Following a survey of 500+ leaders and decision-makers in mid-sized businesses*, The Bigger Picture Report from MYOB shows that most (60%) have seen their revenue increase on this time last year and the same proportion have more sales or work lined up for the next six months than usual, building on initial pipeline improvements seen in late 2024.
The report also highlights that international connections and export volumes are at the core of this impressive performance for many of those polled.
Just over two thirds (67%) of mid-sized businesses surveyed currently export their goods and services, with the average value of goods or services shipped per business each year sitting at $18.1m (NZD). The local businesses leading the way in exports are those in sectors including manufacturing (82% exporting), agriculture, forestry and fishing (78%), and wholesale (74%).
MYOB’s Executive General Manager – Enterprise, Kim Clarke, explains that mid-sized businesses will be crucial in helping New Zealand reclaim its exporting mojo.
“Aotearoa’s mid-sized businesses often fly under the radar due to a lack of recognition compared with their smaller and larger counterparts, but this ‘missing middle’ shouldn’t be underestimated. In our last three surveys of this segment, most businesses reported revenue growth on the year prior, which – given the conditions – is unarguably impressive. Plus, many are already enjoying export success with markets like Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United States,” says Kim.
“New Zealand is a proud exporting nation and with international trade conditions becoming increasingly unpredictable, shoring up relationships and growing export volumes with key markets and new trading partners will be critical to delivering a thriving economy.
“Mid-sized businesses are already doing the heavy lifting to help achieve this and we saw in our polling last year that plenty more have ambitions to start exporting over the next five years, but ultimately success here relies on them to be running at full speed. This means removing any blockers and putting the right frameworks in place to help them do so,” she adds.
Removing barriers to growth and unlocking business potential
The leaders at the helm of local mid-sized businesses are clear on what these blockers are and to counter them, the actions and policy settings that could accelerate their business performance.
According to MYOB’s report, rising costs (40%), industry competition (33%), and business or industry regulation (31%) are the top factors impacting their ability to maximise their potential, so it’s little surprise these themes also appear amongst the actions they’ve identified would help their businesses grow.
While improving international trade relations through new FTAs or other trade deals (71%) leads the charge, other policies or actions the business leaders surveyed believe would have a positive impact on their success over the next five years include: addressing interest rates and inflation (69%), government-led programmes to support business’ digital upskilling and cyber-resilience (68%), adjusting competition settings (65%), reducing the company tax rate to 25% (65%), and government-backed loans/subsidies to help businesses finance growth, innovation and digitisation (65%).
“Both tax settings and foreign trade and investment have recently been the talk of the town when it comes to policy improvements on the Government’s radar to stimulate economic growth, but these need to go hand-in-hand with practical initiatives and support,” Kim explains.
“Over the course of our years working closely with mid-sized businesses, they have continually shown a propensity for innovation and creating efficiencies in their operations to improve their productivity. Our insights indicate that if they were armed with more capital, it’s likely we’d see this confidence to invest in and embrace new technologies, increase, and generating such an outcome is critical if we want to ensure economic progress isn’t limited to a short-term horizon,” she adds.
Addressing the elephant in the economic engine room – productivity
Though there is high confidence (70%) New Zealand’s economy will continue to improve in 2025, decision-makers in mid-sized businesses recognise that unlocking productivity gains will be key to achieving their own growth goals this year.
In terms of what changes could help them improve productivity and supercharge their competitive advantage, MYOB’s insights show that developing and investing in a skilled workforce will be crucial if they are to leverage the evolving growth opportunities in front of them.
Increased staff training (37%) is called out as the top action business leaders polled believe would have a positive impact on their productivity, followed by more automation (36%), increased capital investment (35%), implementing new (or updating) business software (33%), reduced compliance requirements (33%) and a greater availability of specialised skills (32%).
“Regardless of their size, people are at the heart of every business - from their employees to the customers they serve - and as new technologies continue to emerge, local business leaders are eager to ensure their team members have the skills and knowledge to keep up with the pace of change. This combination of talent and technology is absolutely essential for them to be truly humming and operating at their full potential,” says Kim.
“Continuous investment in modernising their operations and taking their teams on the journey, has played an important role in enabling the agility of mid-sized businesses so far. It’s what’s seen these businesses consistently punch above their weight year after year despite the conditions. However, the sooner the Government releases some of the shackles to growth – addressing capital, competition and regulation settings – the quicker these businesses will be able to unleash even more capability and cement their status as a true market force.”
ENDS
To read the full report, click here.
For more information, please contact:
Rosie Miller
NZ PR Specialist
E: rosie.miller@myob.com
Survey Methodology:
These insights are from MYOB’s latest survey of mid-sized businesses, polling a representative sample of 503 medium business leaders and decision-makers (*with between 20-500 FTEs and $5m+ annual revenue) in New Zealand. The survey took place from 6 – 30 January 2025 and was conducted by independent research agency, Dynata. Respondents were sampled randomly from the Dynata online panel and screened to ensure they met the qualifying criteria. Quotas were maintained on industry sector and business size/FTEs to ensure a reliable and diverse cross-section of business opinions from mid-sized businesses were obtained.