Tower Cranes New Zealand has been placed in receivership and building companies Stanley Group and related company Tallwood have been liquidated.
Tower Cranes PwC receiver Lara Bennett told the NZ Herald she was focused on securing equipment, with cranes at more than 10 sites, and looking after around 90 staff at the company.
Last year the company had three projects caught up in the Ebert Construction receivership. This included jobs in Wellington, Pokeno and Auckland. A tower crane had only recently been erected at the Pokeno site at the time of Ebert’s receivership.
Meanwhile, Matamata-based Stanley Group was placed into liquidation after a vote by shareholders on September 5, the Companies Office showed.
Kiwibank appointed receivers Jared Booth and Tony Maginness from Baker Tilley Staples Rodway.
The business has around 120 staff and had three projects underway for Housing New Zealand in Mangere, Hamilton and Whakātane. It also had other major projects underway.
It is understood Stanley Group got into financial trouble after it under-quoted for work with Housing New Zealand. It’s estimated $5-10 million is owing to creditors.
New Zealand has seen a recent boom in crane numbers with 148 long-term cranes reported throughout the country, according to the Rider Levett Bucknall Q1 2019 RLB Crane Index.
This mirrors the record levels of new building work put in place which grew 6.8% to $18 billion for the 12 months ending September 30, 2018.
Growth of 6.8% in new residential and 6.9% new non-residential was recorded. New building consents also rose with the number of consents in 2018 reaching 39,087 and totaling $17.6 billion.
However, calls are being made for the government to take steps to protect small and medium-sized sub-contractors which are severely impacted by large liquidations.
