The Hastings district, situated on the Heretaunga Plains and covering just over a third of Hawkes Bay, is at the forefront of regional growth.
Hastings District has 70,842 residents which is 1.8 percent of New Zealand's population.
Hastings is the business ‘powerhouse’ of Hawkes Bay and continues to perform strongly against many national economic indicators. For the past two years it has outstripped many other regional towns in terms of retail spend, employment, and the housing market growth.
Increasingly, people are moving to the wider Hastings area to establish themselves in business, seeking a more relaxed and less congested way of life.
Being an inland city, Hastings is an ideal place to establish a business because of its links with the Hawkes Bay heartland and because it has room to develop. An expressway connects Hastings to sister city Napier, the airport and the port - all are only a short 15 to 20 minute drive away.
The city also sits on the main eastern North Island rail corridor operated by Kiwi Rail.
Surrounded by sheep and beef farming, Hastings also has a strong horticultural sector growing crops for export and local processing. It is the largest apple producing area in New Zealand, and has a thriving, world-famous wine industry.
Food processing contributes significantly to the economic success of Hastings, with international food giants Heinz Watties and McCain both operating large plants.
With so much production there’s a well developed engineering sector to service the industries, and supporting the export led economy.
Alongside the residential, industrial and facilities development, there is a well established building and construction industry.