Hospitality NZ and Restaurant Association investigate merger
Potential amalgamation being investigated by Hospitality NZ and Restaurant Association, with the potential to become "one unified national hospitality body"
Hospitality NZ and Restaurant Association (RA) have announced that they are investigating the feasibility of amalgamating into one unified national hospitality body.
In a joint announcement, the organisations said that they “already represent businesses that share many of the same opportunities and challenges. We engage with the same government agencies and decisionmakers, advocate on many of the same issues and provide a range of similar services to our members.”
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“The opportunity is bigger than simply bringing two organisations together; it is about asking whether we can build something stronger for you and our combined memberships.”
The announcement said that the goal was to “explore a model that continues to focus on what members value most and builds on that, creating an organisation with the scale, capability and influence to serve members well into the future”.
“In other words, creating a win for members and a win for hospitality.”
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The exploration has the support of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), they said, “reflecting the importance of having strong, effective and sustainable industry representation”.
The investigation aimed to clarify whether amalgamation could deliver greater value to its members, provide a clearer and more unified industry voice and increase efficiency through better use of resources. Also cited were desires to create stronger training and workforce pathways, future-proofing and making a more connected industry that brought together hospitality, accommodation and the wider sector.
Hospitality NZ and RA said that amalgamation was not “a done deal”, but rather that they were in the early stages of investigating possibilities. A joint steering group had been appointed by the associations’ management committees “to examine the benefits, risks and options of coming together”, and this work was expected to be completed by mid-2027.
