Tyler Redway
MOUNT Gambier/ Berrin has recently experienced an influx in activity for businesses, varying from location swaps to all-new microbusinesses being established in the region.
Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Candice Fennell said this activity was a good sign for the region’s economy, particularly from the influx of visiting tourists from interstate during the school holidays.
“We are certainly seeing a buzz around town again and have done with the school holidays with the school holidays for Victoria which are just finishing and the ones for South Australia are kicking off again,” Ms Fennell said.
“I think one of the things is while sometimes it doesn’t work well for visiting families when our state is struggling with the school holidays, it certainly means the influx of people becomes more spread out over a longer period of time which is good.”
Ms Fennell said it was “refreshing” to see businesses shuffle between locations so they could either find a location which fits their purpose or open a new avenue for smaller businesses.
While this was a good thing for the economy, she said there needed to be a plan in place for workers and how much a business was able to support.
“What we are noticing is how Mount Gambier and the region is a really good place for business and it is just flowing into more businesses literally opening every week a new one comes through,” Ms Fennell said.
“There are now a huge amount of microbusinesses in our community, which is what we discovered at the recent business award celebrations.
“One of the big things and pluses is the increase in the opportunity for people to find work, but the flip side of that is how the labour market is really tight at the moment, so a lot of businesses are struggling to find workers and particularly skilled workers in their expertise.
“What we need to focus on as a business community and as a community in general is how we are ready for the growth, so getting the right housing and medical services in place to be able to buffer newer people coming into our region as well as existing locals.”
Ms Fennell said the community was also closing the gap for how long vacant buildings remained unoccupied considering the larger amount of new and existing businesses.
“You still have an enormous amount of businesses still operating from home so I think overall it’s looking very good,” she said.
“It’s always going to look on the upside, but I think we have to make sure we are piggybacking off of that.
“It’s a good time when we are getting new occupancies and businesses starting up at the back end of this period of time.”
Ms Fennell said another way to ensure healthy connection with the community was to join with the Chamber of Commerce, to allow better communication about the challenges of businesses and allow them to easily network.
