The business of Site Weld in Dunedin on Friday. Photo: Peter Mcintosh. The owners of Dunedin engineering firm Site Weld are confident they can repay $1.2 million owed by its former trading company to Inland Revenue Te Tari Taake. The IRD filed an application in the High Court at Dunedin in April for SW (Pre 2023) Ltd to be put into liquidation. That company was, until early last month, known as Site Weld NZ Ltd — the Dunedin engineering business is now operating as Site Weld NZ (2023) Ltd, a different company, which was incorporated in March 2023. The statement of claim and verifying affidavit showed the defendant company owed the IRD a total of $1,214,695.60 — comprised of $389,030.43 for goods and services tax (GST) and $825,665.17 for employer activities. There were no outstanding objections or challenges in relation to the assessment of the debts. Site Weld general manager Stephanie Olsen said the entity the debt was attributed to was a dormant, non-trading company that had not operated since 2023. Site Weld NZ (2023) Ltd was the one trading at present and was set up three years ago when Chris McBride joined as a third owner. They were working closely with the IRD to get the core debt fully repaid but had not been able to initiate repayments ‘‘as quickly as we would have liked’’, Mrs Olsen said. Around June 2023, the operating assets of the old company were sold to the new one for an agreed market value. All assets, contracts, employees and operations were transferred, but not the debts. The debt to the IRD came in the last few months of the old company’s operations through a poor trading period, Mrs Olsen said. The amount sought by the IRD did not represent the core debt and did not affect the operations of the new company. The application for liquidation had come as a surprise, but they understood it was a process and were confident the debt owed by the old company would be repaid. ‘‘We absolutely will be paying that back,’’ Mrs Olsen said. ‘‘We’ve started paying that back already and we’ve got an adjournment in right now that gives us time to just work through that with IRD.’’ She considered the matter to be a ‘‘blip’’ and they were committed to fulfilling their obligations, Mrs Olsen said. According to the statement of claim, SW (Pre 2023) Ltd was served with a statutory demand in February demanding payment of $1,202,565.09. ‘‘The defendant company failed to comply with the statutory demand ... is insolvent and unable to pay its debts. ‘‘In the circumstances, it is just and equitable that the company be placed into liquidation.’’ The matter was heard in the High Court at Dunedin on Thursday and was adjourned to August 6.
