Great North Road
Economic Baseline
August 2021
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AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
Background
Great North Road between Grey Lynn and Karangahape Road is one of Auckland’s most important urban
corridors. Auckland Transport (AT) are proposing to make a section of Great North Road safer for people
walking and on bikes, make bus journeys more reliable, and help reduce congestion along the route.
Aim
Auckland Transport’s aim is to proactively manage the impact of its urban redevelopment projects with
local communities and businesses. AT has partnered with Datamine to undergo an economic analysis of
the Great North Road corridor which will allow AT to objectively monitor, assess, and proactively manage
the impact of the redevelopment as it occurs.
Economic baseline
In order to monitor, assess and proactively manage the redevelopment project a baseline has been
established to define what the ‘normal’ level of economic activity and spend in the corridor and Grey
Lynn village is. The baseline reporting which has been created is designed to be refreshed during and
after the redevelopment periods so AT can track changes from the baseline over time.
Key questions
1. What is the spend baseline for the areas of interest (ie. normal spend and economic activity?)
The Great North Road Corridor was split into two sections for this analysis, the total area
known as the corridor, and the village area which is defined by Grey Lynn village.
To calculate the baselines for spend and transactions, the period of 1st January 2018 – 31st
March 2021 has been used.
Total Spend
Number of Transactions
- Corridor $447.96M
- Corridor 9.8M
- Village $223.66M
- Village 4.88M
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
2.
How has retail spend been tracking over time?
Retail spend in the corridor and the village have been
decreasing YoY over time, noting that 2020
is impacted by Covid-19.
Corridor
Village
2018:
$140.14M
2018:
$72.34M
2019:
$139.67M
2019:
$68.66M
2020:
$135.62M
2020:
$67.75M
3.
Are there differences in retail categories. For example are we seeing more spend in hospitality vs
retail and how has this changed over time?
Comparing YoY spend for the month of February to avoid impacts of Covid-19 beginning in March 2020,
we see that corridor spend in hospitality has been consistently increasing YoY over time. Retail spend in
the corridor was following the same upwards growth pattern as hospitality up until 2021 where we then
see a decrease YoY, despite the number of retailers in the corridor remaining relatively consistent. This
reduction in spend could be due the impacts of Covid-19, where the mix of retailers may have changed.
Hospitality
Retail (incl grocery)
Feb 2018:
$740.58k
Feb 2018:
$9.57M
Feb 2019:
$1.04M
Feb 2019:
$10.2M
Feb 2020:
$1.23M
Feb 2020:
$10.3M
Feb 2021:
$1.33M
Feb 2021:
$8.87M
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
4.
How many businesses are operating in the area and how has this changed over time?
A total of 63 retailers are included in this analysis who were operating in the corridor at
the time of surveying in June 2021. This excludes car yards and industrial businesses.
In order to determine any changes in the number of businesses operating and change
overtime, the corridor will need to be resurveyed. The baseline determines the number
of businesses operating at the time the corridor was surveyed, it can not be determined
what businesses may have been operating in the corridor prior to this.
Category
# of Retailers
Hospitality
Eating Place and
15
restaurants
Hospitality
Fast Food Restaurants
7
Retail
Grocery Stores and
15
Supermarkets
Retail
Miscellaneous Retail
26
5. What is the average dwell time in the Grey Lynn village area?
Dwell time is calculated by the difference between the first and last transaction of
customers shopping within the Grey Lyn village area.
Weekday
Weekend
Am peak
15mins
13mins
(7am-9am)
Pm peak
24mins
30mins
(4pm-6pm)
Off peak
26mins
26mins
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
6. Where is spend coming from (ie. catchment)?
The catchment of spend for the village and total corridor are relatively similar, however
village spend is slightly more concentrated. For the total corridor, 90% of spend comes
from within a 15.16km radius while 90% of spend in Grey Lynn village comes from
within a 10.13km radius.
Corridor
Village
% of
Max
% of
Max
Spend
radius
Spend
radius
10%
0.99km
10%
0.36km
20%
1.02km
20%
0.66km
30%
1.70km
30%
1.00km
40%
2.20km
40%
1.68km
50%
2.55km
50%
1.77km
60%
3.10km
60%
2.30km
70%
5.96km
70%
2.52km
80%
9.52km
80%
3.75km
90%
15.16km
90%
10.13km
100%
49.82km
100%
49.81km
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
Methodology
1. Survey the corridor and list all retailers who are operating. Exclude car yards and industrial
businesses. The corridor was surveyed on 14/06/2021.
2. Search for the surveyed retailers in Westpac BI data and pull their transactional data for the period
1st January 2018 – 31st March 2021.
Westpac electronic card data accounts for ~27% of all electronic transactions in New
Zealand. Raw Westpac data is geo-weighted to take into account variations in Westpac
market share across different regions in NZ. Once the Westpac sample has been
established, spend is weighted based on the area or location of interest in order to
establish total spend for an area or location.
Westpac BI privacy rules
When disclosing market share figures for retailers, each merchant category must consist
of at least three retailers and cannot make up 80% or more market share. The GNR
corridor being a relatively small area meant that retailers needed to be grouped
together in four broad categories to adhere to these Westpac BI rules. The four
categories are: Eating Places and Restaurants, Fast Food Restaurants, Grocery Stores
and Supermarkets and Miscellaneous retail.
3. Calculate total spend and transactional metrics to answer AT’s key questions and build the PowerBI
dashboard.
4. Catchment is calculated by summarising spend from each Area Unit (AU). AU’s are identified from the
transactional BI data. The AU’s are then sorted by distance from the corridor or village and the
cumulative proportion of spend is calculated. This enables us to say “ X% of spend is coming from a Y
km radius”.
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – GREAT NORTH ROAD
List of merchants by category:
Eating Places and Restaurants:
o Ada Restaurant, Charlie Boys Coffee Bar, Craft Kitchen, Grey Lynn Roast, Grey Lynn Tavern, Grey
Lynn Turkish Kebab, La Mexicana, Postal Service café, Ripe Deli, Satya Indian, Soul Thai2, Sushime,
The Coffee Stop, Tiger Burger, Wise Boys.
Fast Food Restaurants:
o European and Chinese takeaway, Club sandwich lunch and café, Grey Lynn kebab, Hana sushi and
salad, McDonalds, Newton fish and chippery, Pizza Hut
Grocery Stores and Supermarkets:
o Arch Hill dairy, Countdown, Crescent dairy, Grey Lynn bakehouse, Grey Lynn butcher, Grey Lynn
fine wines, Grey Lynn superette, Hylite dairy, Arch Hill liquor land, Megha superette, Phillipe’s
chocolate and French pastry, Robinson’s Food store/Market store, Sumit Superette, Tart bakery,
The Vegan Shop.
Miscellaneous Retail:
o AS Colour, Bunnings, Caltex, Dynacom computer total care, Elouise, Haus of Flox design, Further
Doings Studio, Gopals Pharmacy, Green Point, Liz Mitchell, Matan Florist, Mina, Monmouth Glass
Studio, Natara massage and spa, Pearl, Pet.kiwi, Photo warehouse, Repco, Rose & Heather,
Society Beauty, Sun Wave, The Surrey hotel (motel/pub), Thom Morrison, Unichem Pharmacy, V
Hair and makeup, Vet Care
Datamine
15 Faraday Street
Parnell, Auckland 1052
+64
datamine.com
+64
datamine.com
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