At the New Zealand business brokers’ recent awards ceremony, the Central office — at that time manned by Central Otago/Southland managing partner Donna Harpur-Swain and broker Greig Garthwaite — was named best regional office out of 14 others, excluding Auckland.
Additionally, Harpur-Swain was named as one of the top 10 high achievers for the year, based on gross income — her prize is a trip for two to Fiji next month — and was also named Aotearoa’s best marketer.
She’s thrilled with the gongs, which come as the Central office expands to cater to increased demand to sell active businesses.
"It’s quite new and people are now just learning ... they can get help to sell."
Harpur-Swain says people can sell their own businesses, through accountants, but "accountants have only got their own database to sell to", noting that’s not getting the best price, because it’s not going to open market.
ABC Central’s just taken on Wānaka-based Jenny Silver, while Harpur-Swain’s recently branched into Southland and is looking for a staffer in Invercargill.
In terms of sellers, "we’re getting a lot of baby boomers, who’ve been in the business 20 or 30 years that need out", while there’s "strong interest" from buyers all over New Zealand to get into a business here.
"There are a lot of people looking to move to regional NZ, but a lot of people specifically looking to Wānaka, Queenstown.
"The hard thing is, a lot of people would consider [buying] a business ... but they don’t look."
