CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 10 October 2025

Tradies

“Most tradies still use unsophisticated tools to run their businesses, with 58% using generic software like Microsoft Word and 28% using pen and paper to manage jobs. This is even more pronounced among sole traders, who make up two-thirds of our total addressable market, as only 8% of sole traders use specialised job management software.” Roby Sharon-Zipser, CEO, Hipages Group Holdings Ltd

Downsizing

“The fundamental drivers of demand for homeowners seeking to downsize (financial and lifestyle) remain strong.” Henry Ruiz, CEO, Lifestyle Communities Ltd

New Zealand

“Economic activity through the middle of 2025 was weak. In part, this reflects domestic constraints on the supply of goods and services in some industries, and the impact of global economic policy uncertainty…Economic growth in New Zealand’s trading partners is proving resilient, partly because of strong investment in AI-related activity, but is expected to slow in 2026.” Market Statement, Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Food Industry & Ingredients

“In terms of the heightened reformulation activity…a shift to natural colours from synthetic ones. So, it's also reduced sugar, reduced salt, natural and healthy ingredients, and eliminating artificial ingredients of concern. And so that's the type of activity that we're seeing. And it's somewhat expected, I think, with what you've seen broadly reported in the media in terms of where consumer concerns are…A lot of the food industry is focused around that.” Brendan Foley, CEO, McCormick & Co. Inc. [one of the world's largest food ingredient companies]

Productivity Gains & AI

“AI technology is now driving 45% of U.S. GDP growth, and we believe this is just the beginning. When a customer can realise productivity gains of 10% or 20%, it's interesting, but with sightings of 30% or 40%, it becomes an absolute competitive imperative.” Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Technologies Inc.

“How big is the market for intelligence? It's very big. It's probably the biggest market that was ever created.” Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Technologies Inc.

Silver

“The really interesting thing about silver is that a little bit more than half of the demand comes from the industrial [use] side. The other demand, the coins and the jewellery and the silver wear, that's investment. So silver is really special. It has an industrial side for its demand and has an investment side to the demand. There's no other metal that really has that duality. When you look at gold, it's all investment. Silver, silver has got both sides of it.” Ignacio Couturier, CFO, Pan American Silver Corp. [one of the world’s largest silver miners]

COVID-19 & Pets

“[As] the COVID-19 cohort of puppies and kittens age and naturally require increased veterinary care, our medium-term ambition remains to deliver like-for-like growth of between 4% and 8%.” Richard Fairman, CEO, CVS Group plc [a leading veterinary provider in the UK and Australia]

Copper Smelters

“Copper is a critical metal for the future. Competition in the global copper smelting market is fierce, and it’s not a level playing field, with various countries seeking to secure substantial market positions.” Troy Wilson, CEO, Glencore Metals Australia

Batteries & Renewables

“Short update on batteries. Here, the market situation has turned out to be as challenging as we described it last year, especially outside of China. A lot of developments in the market have been very volatile in the battery market, both with cell manufacturers, but also with battery materials manufacturers.” Markus Kamieth, CEO, BASF Group [world’s largest chemicals producer]

Chemicals Demand

"Of course, what is outside of our control is the macro headwind, I think we'll call it. And that forces us to believe that the rest of the year may be weaker than average from a demand standpoint. That doesn't mean the world is ending, just so no one sort of freaks out too much. It just means it's not an exuberant environment that we're encountering from a demand standpoint." Raimond Coneliano, CEO, Redox Ltd

Content Production

“Some tech giants are seeking access to everyone’s ideas without permission and without payment. Their justification goes like this: if Australia doesn’t surrender its copyright to the Large Language Models, tech companies won’t build data sheds in Australia.” Michael Miller, Executive Chair, News Corp Australia

Melbourne & Commuting

"In Melbourne CBD, on average, people are currently coming to work for about 3 days of the 5-day work week." Craig Drummond, Chair, Transurban Group Ltd

Insurance & Extreme Weather

“While Australia has always faced extreme weather, the accelerating losses per person and their compounding impact on communities is costly and ongoing…Australia is in a global race to ensure its built environment has the resilience needed to protect assets.” Andrew Hall, CEO, Insurance Council of Australia [insurance industry body]

Technology & Public Sector

“Tech is an interesting space because, historically, the big overseas names have been the safe places to go…So, although they were safe brands, they are not delivering [on large public sector implementations] and, as a result, everybody is being exposed.” Stuart MacDonald, COO, TechnologyOne Ltd