The engineering company, which was started by Mr Williamson 20 years ago, went into liquidation on Thursday and closed its doors yesterday.
One of the auditors appointed, Malcolm Hollis, said a meeting took place yesterday at the company’s headquarters in Kaikorai Valley Rd in Dunedin.
About 20 staff were there and a video connection was also set up to connect with workers at the Queenstown site.
The liquidators had closed all three sites - there was also showroom just south of the workshop site in Kaikorai Valley Rd - and the workers had lost their jobs, Mr Hollis said.
He said the workers were aware of what was going on with the company and the situation they were in.
The liquidation had been brought by Inland Revenue, Dart Engineering owing more than $1.16million in tax. The tax debt centred around PAYE tax and unpaid GST.
Senior management of the company were working with the liquidators on the final details around the company and to find out what assets it had.
Mr Hollis said the company did have assets such as the leases of the three buildings it worked in and was awaiting some payments for work
carried out.
More people were owed money by the company, apart from Inland Revenue, but it was too soon to say how much that would be. The first liquidators’ report was due early next month which hopefully might be able to determine exactly how much money was owed.
Holiday pay had not been paid or redundancy, and employees would have to line up as preferential creditors for unpaid wages.
Mr Hollis said it was not a nice meeting to have and ‘‘they never are’’ but the staff were aware of what was going on and it was not a huge shock to them the business had been forced into liquidation.
Some workers had already found jobs at other Dunedin companies and others were looking for work.
It would be a priority to get hold of Mr Williamson and talk to him about issues within the company, Mr Hollis said.
Mr Williamson is now living with his wife and three children in the city of Red Deer in Alberta in Canada, a city of about 100,000. The couple have opened an engineering company, Caki Fabrication, in the city, carrying out similar work as was done by Dart Engineering.
The couple also have a company called Caki Corporation listed on the New Zealand Companies register. Mr Williamson owns 66% of the company while his wife, Ashley Stewart, owns the rest.
