North Island Mussel Processors put into receivership
BUSINESSDESK: North Island Mussel Processors is being placed in receivership after the owner of its one-third shareholder, Greenshell Investments, failed to pay $1.2 million in processing fees and associated debt.
North Island Mussel made the headlines in 2009 when it adopted the world's first automated mussel-opening machine at its Tauranga plant – a $23 million expansion that was opened by Prime Minister John Key.
Listed fishing company Sanford and Sealord Group, which own the remaining two-thirds of North Island Mussel, will work with the receivers "to see if mussel processing operations can commence once the new Coromandel mussel season starts in mid-October this year and to protect the jobs of 20 full time staff and 200 additional workers employed on a seasonal basis," a statement from Sanford says.
The receivership will not have a material effect on Sanford's financial results or banking covenants, Sanford managing director Eric Barratt says.
North Island Mussel is a toll processor for its shareholders, who export Greenshell mussels. As at midday today, a notice of receivership was not visible on the Companies Office website.
Shares of Sanford fell 0.5% to $3.85 and have slipped 5% this year.
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Comments and questions6
I'm interested to know how Peter Vitasovich (Greenshell Investments) reconciles this default of payment with his position as Chairman of Aquaculture New Zealand and would like to see some more probing journalism in this regard.
coal mines closing down smelter down sizing and now a grandious muscle plant in recievership
australian mining section showing signs of faltering looks like the world economic down turn is heading our way
and we have a goverment with no stategic plan that i can see to weather the storm
apart from giving our precious assets to there mates the 1% ers
wake up nz
Do you know the difference between "there"and "their"? Seems not. You are clearly not educated enough to be using these pages, let alone expressing reasoned political statements. Stop wasting everyone's time.
Readers need to understand the nature of the shareholders agreement and whether unilateral decisions to close the factory taken by Sanford and Sealord precipitated this move. This will play out in the court room - and Sanford dont seem to win many battles in the Court ! Eric's long overdue retirement may be spent in the HIgh Court.
The fact that Barratt is still holding on as MD is an indictment on the Sanford board - what do these people get paid to do after all?
Bear in mind Labour put together a massive public sector that sucked in huge amounts of taxpayer dollars. Trying to trim Govt spending in the lower tax take climate is very difficult when you have thousands of public servants who benefit from these jobs. And I'm not talking about Health and Education front line staff either. I wouldn't want to be Bill English. Also from what I can see the only ones benefiting from the proposed asset sales are lawyers and Iwi.