Wholesale Trade Survey: June 2010 quarter

Total wholesale trade sales, after adjusting for seasonal effects, increased 2.2 percent ($458 million) in the June 2010 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today, the third consecutive quarter to record a rise.

"Sales rose in nine of the 16 wholesale industries, with the increase mainly driven by three industries,” business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver said.

The three industries driving the wholesale trade sales increase were:

• primary product food wholesaling, up 8.4 percent ( $149 million)
• machinery and equipment wholesaling, up 14.8 percent ($122 million)
• unprocessed primary products wholesaling, up 6.7 percent ($107 million).

Of the industries that recorded lower sales in the June 2010 quarter, the largest fall was in food and grocery products wholesaling, down 2.2 percent or $95 million. The decrease was the first for this industry since September 2008, when sales fell 1.8 percent ($73 million). Food and grocery products wholesaling is by far the largest of the wholesale trade industries, accounting for about a fifth of all sales.

The trend in wholesale trade sales continued to rise and, in the June 2010 quarter, was 6.5 percent higher than in June 2009, but still 4.3 percent below its peak in June 2008.

The value of seasonally adjusted wholesale trade stocks fell 1.8 percent to $10.1 billion, in the June 2010 quarter, reversing a 1.6 percent ($166 million) rise in the previous quarter.