The District’s economy has been changing over the past decade with strong growth in the manufacturing and tertiary industries. The District presents many opportunities for future development especially in marine construction - both ship and yacht building, engineering, tourism, aquaculture, introduction of new crops and investment in planted forestry production and wood processing.

Whangarei District has a population base of almost 75,000 with about 27,000 employees working for over 6500 businesses. It also generates approximately half of the Northland regional economy.

Advantages include a new port - the deepest in New Zealand, a relatively stable workforce, sub-tropical climate with a long growing season, and large areas of available flat land. Whangarei is also home to New Zealand’s only oil refinery, one of the district’s largest employers.

The port has a general bulk/cargo facility at Marsden Point and gives access to national and international markets, providing potential advantages over other areas in New Zealand.

Whangarei airport is located within minutes of the city with daily flights to and from other city locations including Auckland and Wellington International airports. By road, Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city with a population of over 1.2 million is approximately a two hour drive. The leading growth industries are land-based industries (such as pastoral farming, horticulture and forestry) manufacturing, property and business services and construction. Currently, the strongest industries in terms of value-add are agriculture, forestry and fishing (22%), manufacturing (14%), and property and business services (9%) and construction (9%).

Boat building is a traditional Whangarei industry that is currently undergoing a significant resurgence. The ANZAC frigate project was successfully completed by TENIX Defence (New Zealand) Limited in Whangarei in 2004 with a multi-role vessel, offshore and inshore patrol vessels currently under construction for the New Zealand Navy. The boat and ship-building industry is producing a range of vessels from super yachts to tugs, aluminium work boats, tourist charter boats fibreglass and composite and traditional wooden boats.

From 400 to 600 international cruising boats visit New Zealand annually. A significant proportion of these visit the marinas at Whangarei and Tutukaka and many require maintenance and a refit. This industry brings in excess of $50m into the economy each year and employs around 500 people.