NZ franchise survey puts regulation and compliance in focus

New Zealand franchise businesses want simpler regulation, lower compliance costs and stronger economic conditions, according to findings from the 2026 Deloitte and Chapman Tripp Election Survey. The inclusion of Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ) members brings a franchise community perspective to an election-year business survey normally dominated by larger firms.

Franchise voices join the election-year survey

The triennial survey of BusinessNZ members was extended to FANZ members in 2026, following the association’s membership of BusinessNZ’s affiliated group. The findings were reported by Franchise New Zealand on 7 October.

The responses provide a picture of participating members’ priorities, ranging from regulatory administration to access to talent. They also allow comparisons with the wider BusinessNZ respondent group, revealing both shared concerns and differences in emphasis.

Katrina King, chief executive of FANZ, summarised the main message: “Overall, FANZ respondents appear focused on creating a more enabling business environment through simpler regulation, lower compliance costs and stronger economic conditions.”

That emphasis places the practical conditions of running a business at the centre of the franchise community’s contribution. Rather than focusing solely on one proposed legislative change, respondents identified several ways in which regulation affects their operations.

Regulatory complexity tops the concerns

FANZ respondents identified four aspects of regulation as having the greatest impact on their businesses: complexity or inconsistency, compliance costs, the length of approval or consenting processes, and the frequency of regulatory change.

These concerns distinguish the content of rules from the demands involved in understanding and administering them. The responses highlight not only what businesses must comply with, but also the time, cost and uncertainty associated with doing so.

Views on the benefits of recent regulatory reform were mixed. More than one third of both FANZ respondents and other BusinessNZ respondents believed reforms had improved productivity and the ease of doing business to some extent. Just over another third believed they had made no material difference.

Those findings do not suggest a uniform experience of reform. Some respondents reported benefits, while a similarly substantial group had yet to see a material change. For franchise businesses assessing policy proposals, that distinction matters: support for simpler rules is not the same as evidence that changes already made have delivered improvements across the community.

Workforce concerns show a nuanced picture

Workforce capability remained important, although immediate skills shortages were not a critical constraint for most businesses, according to King’s summary.

Almost half of FANZ respondents said the current skills shortage was not constraining their ability to improve productivity and adopt new technology. Nevertheless, access to skills and talent was a much stronger concern for franchise respondents than for the wider BusinessNZ group when they compared employment priorities.

These findings address different questions. A business can regard access to capable people as an important employment issue without identifying a current shortage as the obstacle preventing investment in technology or productivity improvements.

Immigration responses also varied. More than half of FANZ respondents said they did not use immigration. Among those who did, around half reported greater difficulty accessing international skills under the accredited-employer visa system described in the survey report.

The immigration finding therefore applies to a subset of respondents, rather than to the franchise community as a whole.

Proposed reforms and the priorities ahead

Both FANZ and BusinessNZ respondents generally expected proposed Holidays Act reform to have either a net positive impact or no material impact on their businesses. Fewer FANZ respondents were concerned about a net negative effect.

King also reported general support among members for proposed Holidays Act and health and safety reforms, particularly where they would reduce complexity and provide greater certainty. These are views about proposed reforms, not confirmation of legislative changes or their eventual effects.

Looking ahead, she identified economic growth, business confidence, workforce skills development and emerging technologies as the issues respondents expected to shape the future success of New Zealand franchise businesses.

Practical takeaway: Franchise owners should use these findings as a prompt to review their own compliance burdens and workforce needs, while distinguishing proposed reforms from rules already in force.