While prominent boat builder Salthouse Marine Ltd has gone
into receivership, with the loss of about 50 jobs, it is
"business as usual" at three other Auckland boat industry
companies bearing the Salthouse name.
Receiver John Price of HPL Partners said he was called in
last Thursday by a private investor and had closed Salthouse
Marine.
The Salthouse name has been part of New Zealand's boat
building heritage for about 60 years. Brothers Bob and John
Salthouse began building boats in the early 1950s before Bob
left to start up his own boat building company, Salthouse
Marine, in 1983.
Greenhithe-based Salthouse Boatbuilders director Greg
Salthouse, John Salthouse's son, said today in a statement it
was important to clarify that his company was in no way
affiliated or financially connected to Salthouse Marine.
"While we are sorry to hear that Salthouse Marine Ltd are in
the hands of receivers, Salthouse Boatbuilders Ltd do not
find ourselves in this situation and are currently
experiencing continued success and development," he said.
Next month Salthouse Boatbuilders would launch the latest
TP52 high tech yacht for the English Team Origins to race on
the European circuit.
"Our sheds and slipways are a hive of activity with the refit
of a 72ft cruising yacht and numerous repair and slip jobs.
We have space booked for another 57ft race yacht to start in
the following weeks and work is about to begin on another of
the Salthouse Boatbuilders Ltd designs, a Southstar 37," Mr
Salthouse said.
He added that Dean Salthouse Next Generation Boats and
Salthouse International Marine Brokers also had no financial
affiliation to each other or Salthouse Marine.
For all three companies "it is business as usual and 2010 is
promising great things".
At the beginning of last year Henderson-based Salthouse
Marine employed just over 100 staff but made several waves of
redundancies as the economy slowed, before the receiver laid
off the remaining staff.
