Hanover businesses say the town is a good place for commerce, but difficulties finding labour will be a hinderance to future growth.
Council for the Town of Hanover heard the results from last summer's Business Retention and Expansion study, which received responses from 61 local businesses.
April Marshall, Economic Development Manager, told council that their target was 75 businesses, but they still felt they had a good sample base for the report.
"Overall themes seem to be there's stability with constraints, businesses are very committed to Hanover but face limits related to labour, space, and cost," Marshall told council. "Workforce and housing seem to be connected, labour challenges cannot be addressed without housing solutions. Growth interest exceeds growing capacity, many want to expand but lack the conditions to do so, and that succession risk is emerging."
The results showed that most of the businesses that responded are locally owned, single-location firms, with about a third being in operation for over 35 years.
Most of the respondents also noted they had no change in attitude on operating in Hanover over the last three years, saying it was still a good place to do business.
Around a third of businesses said they were planning to expand within the next year and a half, but noted challenges finding available land or quality employees.
The Town has been looking to expand its land supply by adjusting the boundary in a deal with West Grey.
Councillors questioned whether online sales were impacting local business, but Marshall noted that it was not focused on the retail sector, but across a broad range of sectors and sizes.
"The only thing that I can really read into as far as responses go, is that businesses did note that there's a bit of a lack of local support that they're feeling," she said. "I think that can be contributed to those traditional brick and mortar stores maybe not seeing the business that they would like to see from our local residents."
Marshall said the findings can be implemented in a number of ways, including in the new Downtown Plan that is currently in development. Town staff will also look to focus on business-led collaboration.
