Appointments: Bartercard chief plans e-commerce expansion

By Graeme Kennedy

Friday 19th May 2000

RAPID GROWTH: Roy Netzer says Bartercard has grown 40% annually for the past two years

Bartercard's imminent $20 million Australian Stock Exchange float will boost the New Zealand operation with technology and system upgrades, says new regional managing director Roy Netzer.

A 30% offer to Bartercard members ended this week and the 70% available to the public closes at the end of the month with the $1.25 shares expected to begin trading on June 8.

Mr Netzer said the members' 30% of the relatively modest float was expected to be over-subscribed and they would then buy into the public offering. The capital raised, he said, would finance expansion into the US and lift Bartercard's capabilities in its other markets, including New Zealand.

"A lot of resources will flow here. We plan to introduce e-commerce and improve IT functions later this year so we can process transactions more quickly and accurately and add more features for members," he said.

"Bartercard has grown in New Zealand 40% annually for the past two years. We have about 20% of the Australasian business with 3600 members doing about $12 million in transactions - we are not an organisation to be ignored any more."

The trade exchange began in Australia, where it now has 16,000 members, in 1991 and opened in New Zealand two years later. The company has branches in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Lebanon and expects to have a US operation this year after acquiring a similar business there.

The concept began in the US in the 1980s, where more than 500 exchanges now operate and many large corporates maintain an inhouse barter department to handle the growing business.

Traders exchange goods and services rather than using cash, preserving working capital and finding new business opportunities while the Bartercard offices charge fees as clearing houses to balance trade dollar values in credit and debit accounts.

In New Zealand, Mr Netzer said, members' average card use was 10 times a month for everything from business and office expenses to vehicles, repairs and even haircuts and holidays.

"Our aim is to involve 5% of the business sector and we will probably plateau at around 15,000 members as we introduce new products and services to make membership even more powerful," he said.

"We currently have about 1.5% in Auckland, 1% in Wellington and Dunedin, between 2% and 2.5% in Christchurch and 3% in Rotorua.

"Bartercard is driven by population size - we can't go into a small town and offer a card to the only mechanic there because he doesn't need us. About 30,000 people is the critical mass Bartercard needs to work efficiently, so while we will never have an office in Ashburton or Matamata, we will probably open in Palmerston North soon."

Mr Netzer graduated from Tel Aviv University with a BSc in mechanical engineering in 1983 and served five years as a captain in a technical unit of the Israeli Army.

With a 1991 business degree in marketing, he travelled for two years, "fell in love" with New Zealand during two weeks of mountain climbing and backpacking and returned home to a business manager position with a car parts reconditioning company.

"In Israel I had a house, cars and a family but I did not want to be born, live and die all in the same place and we decided to emigrate to New Zealand - we sold everything and arrived in Auckland in 1995 with four suitcases and permanent residency," he said.

Mr Netzer had been involved with a survey on opportunities for trade exchanges in the Israel market, so knew of the company he joined as a trade co-ordinator and quickly became South Island manager before taking over the top job this month.

Bartercard, he said, began a wide sponsorship programme three years ago, sharing space on the Warriors jerseys with Vodafone, backing the Kingz soccer team and sponsoring around 30 organisations as diverse as Auckland tennis and Massey rugby to Whangarei deep-sea fishing and the Rotorua marathon.

"We initially started sponsorships to gain brand awareness then so people could understand how Bartercard works, but now it is very valuable in networking - to expand through introducing new people and new businesses to the organisation."

Roy Netzer
Position: Managing director,
Bartercard New Zealand
Age: 35
Marital status: Married, two children
Pastimes: Wind-surfing, tramping, snow-boarding

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