Palmerston North, NZ
What Palmerston North is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 1,663 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
1,663 businesses on file · 102 trades · 58 sectors · · built from geonet.wellington on 2026-11-07
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Palmerston North → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 26 metro tables worldwide. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
| Industry group | LQ | Businesses | Entry signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8121 Personal care services | 0.07 | 2 | Caution+1 more |
| 5411 Legal services | 0.09 | 1 | Caution+3 more |
| 4411 Automobile dealers | 0.1 | 2 | Enter |
| 9139 Other local, municipal and regional public administration | 0.1 | 1 | Enter |
| 5311 Lessors of real estate — Affordable & Social Housing Development | 0.13 | 1 | Caution+2 more |
| 5312 Offices of real estate agents and brokers | 0.14 | 7 | Caution |
| 5173 Wired and wireless telecommunications carriers(except satellite) — Regional Facilities-Based Internet Provider | 0.14 | 1 | Structure decides |
| 4451 Grocery and convenience retailers — Independent Grocery Operation | 0.15 | 2 | Caution |
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 99.9% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
No census subdivision is mapped for nz-palmerston-north in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polish | — | — | 3 | |
| Thai | — | — | 1 |
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 1,663 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | 117 | 7% | machinery (54) · painting (14) · plumbing (11) · heating and cooling (10) · electrician (8) · roofing (5) · concrete (4) · carpet (4) |
| Living | 108 | 6.5% | furniture (55) · daycare (12) · cleaning (11) · swimming pools (9) · appliances (9) · real estate (5) · auction (3) · fire safety (2) |
| Fashion | 90 | 5.4% | clothing (90) |
| Retail | 70 | 4.2% | gifts (17) · photography (13) · jeweler (13) · antiques (6) · flowers (5) · garden (5) · toys (3) · department store (3) |
| Agribusiness | 69 | 4.1% | farm (35) · landscaping (27) · forestry (6) · irrigation (1) |
| Travel | 56 | 3.4% | motel (19) · hotel (16) · bnb (11) · travel agent (7) · parking (1) · real estate (1) · bank (1) |
| Education | 38 | 2.3% | school (29) · library (9) |
| Entertainment | 35 | 2.1% | games (24) · museum (3) · music instruments (3) · amusement (3) · aquarium (1) · auction (1) |
| Automotive | 33 | 2% | tires (16) · scooter (9) · auto repair (3) · auto parts (2) · autos (2) · insurance (1) |
| Logistics | 31 | 1.9% | storage (18) · forklifts (4) · towing (4) · packaging (3) · insurance (1) · railroad (1) |
| Sports | 29 | 1.7% | horse (12) · martial arts (7) · golf course (6) · boating marine (4) |
| Food | 28 | 1.7% | catering (11) · baker (11) · ice cream (2) · grocer (2) · seafood (2) |
| Business | 28 | 1.7% | consulting (11) · accounting (10) · association (2) · bankruptcy (1) · vending (1) · government (1) · auction (1) · foundation (1) |
| Health | 27 | 1.6% | pharmacy (9) · medical clinic (7) · optical (5) · chiro (4) · insurance (1) · medical supplier (1) |
| Media | 22 | 1.3% | books (19) · signs (3) |
| Dining | 20 | 1.2% | restaurant (15) · pizza (4) · steakhouse (1) |
| beautysalons | 20 | 1.2% | |
| Manufacturing | 17 | 1% | chemical (10) · fabrication (4) · machinery (2) · salvage (1) |
| Finance | 15 | 0.9% | mortgage (7) · insurance (6) · loans (1) · bank (1) |
| cafes | 12 | 0.7% | fruit (1) |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
12 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvation Army | retail | 2 | — |
| Blockbuster Video | video | 1 | 5,900 |
| Harvey Norman | retail | 1 | 160 |
| Jenny Craig | fitness | 1 | 640 |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Stitch It | retail | 1 | 98 |
| Limited name only | retail | 52 | — |
| Coach name only | luggage | 3 | — |
| Fibrenew name only | specialty | 2 | — |
| Manor name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Bootlegger name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Honda name only | car | 1 | — |
| MANGO name only | retail | 1 | 850 |
| Midas name only | auto | 1 | 1,800 |
| Morrisons name only | supermarket | 1 | 368 |
| Nissan name only | auto | 1 | — |
| Stitches name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Toyota name only | car | 1 | — |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Selling homes
5312Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.
Named in the register
- Chris Marks Commercial Realty — 633 Main Street
- First National Manawatu — Cnr Broadway Avenue & Princess Street
- Harcourts Real Estate — 109 Fitzherbert Avenue
- J P Morgan Commercial Ltd MREINZ — Cnr Broadway & Victoria Avs
- Professionals Unique Realty — 210 Broadway Avenue
- Ray White Real Estate — 29 Princess Street
- Tommys Real Estate MREINZ — 95 Princess Street
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Olive Tree Village Apartments and Rest Home — Olive Gro
Managing for owners
5313Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.
Named in the register
- Opus International Consultants Limited — PO Box 1472
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- AMP Viking Financial Services — 598 Main Street
- Arro Home Loans — Step 1 Level 1 Square Centre Building Cnr Main Street
- Easy Loans — 56 Victoria Street
- Forsyth Barr — Cnr Main & The Square
- Lifestyle Mortgages — 178 Broadway Avenue
- Mortgage House — PO Box 279
- Mortgage Link Manawatu formerly Re Max Mortgage Li — 40 Victoria Avenue
- Opie and Dron — 437 Church Street
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work on the go, mobile services
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
construction
services
events
healthcare
pets
beauty
luxury
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
spas
travel
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
| Institution | Type | Students | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massey | University | — | — |
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Southern Cross Hospital Palmerston North — 21 Carroll Street
- Andersons Veterinary Hospital — 1 Pitama Road
- Cahill Animal Hospital — 261 Broadway Avenue
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 0.1% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 0%.
Built from
geonet.wellington— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands