Blair Chappell and Matthew Horncastle of Williams Corporation charter private jets to move staff around. Photo / supplied
Blair Chappell and Matthew Horncastle of Williams Corporation charter private jets to move staff around. Photo / supplied
Staff numbers at New Zealand’s busiest privately-owned housing developer have dropped a peak from 204 including contractors six months ago to 125 staff now.
Williams Corporation said last month 24 people agreed to take voluntary redundancy in the face of a work slowdown.
But yesterday, company co-founder andmanaging director Matthew Horncastle said the company had completed the 30 per cent staff number cuts it had announced a few weeks ago.
“We’ve done this in a voluntary manner without having to do it in a compulsory way, so we’re now right-sized for the business to deliver 400 to 500 new homes annually, based on current sales including 600 pre-sales with deposits already taken.
“We have 125 staff currently so we have removed 80 since we started the downsizing process some months ago,” he said.
Yet 80 wasn’t a true reflection of the situation either, he said.
“Eighty isn’t exactly correct as that number was at our peak staff level ... not actually when we began looking at right-sizing the business. Approximately 30 per cent of staff have taken part in the voluntary process as noted in the initial announcement,” he said.
A caller phoned the Herald saying only 24 redundancies reported last month was not an accurate reflection of today’s situation.
The caller said significantly more staff had left, and it was time for an update on the redundancies at the Christchurch-headquartered business.
Asked to specify who had gone in terms of the work roles and from which offices geographically, Horncastle said: “This is mostly just evenly across our offices.”
He also expressed unhappiness with the Herald for reporting his comments about women, since removed from Instagram: “I’m a bit grumpy.”
He said in a since-deleted Instagram story he believed traditional gender roles worked, adding: “A woman should use her youth and beauty to get the best possible man.”
Horncastle said last month that Williams Corporation costs had to be cut by 15 to 30 per cent so staff were being sent the offer to slice back costs.
William is the middle name of the two co-founders and the business has offices in Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour Ave, Tauranga, Wellington, Nelson, and head office premises it recently leased at 2 Cathedral Square in Christchurch.
Chappell and Horncastle: Christchurch men, both 29, founded the country's busiest privately-owned residential developer. Photo / supplied
Horncastle and Blair Chappell, both aged 29, founded the company.
The company is also in Brisbane and Sydney, and has offices in Singapore’s Mohamed Sultan Rd and Cebu in the Philippines.
Staff who took the offer were to get the usual month’s pay on resigning, as well as an extra month.
Horncastle, co-founder Chappell and staff charter a private jet to travel in New Zealand because Horncastle said that was a better way to go than on commercial flights when large numbers of people were moving around this country.
On November 15, Horncastle said 15 New Zealand staff and nine in Australia had agreed to go.
On November 8, he sent a voluntary redundancy proposal to staff here, in Australia, the Philippines and Singapore. About 120 staff are employed in this country.
Declining sales meant the businesses had to be restructured or “right-sized” and that might include cutting overheads by 15 to 30 per cent, he said.
Horncastle said he expected a retrenchment of 20 to 60 people but he speculated last month it would be on the lower, not the higher side.
Commentators said the offer made little sense because those with the highest skill levels were most likely to leave and disadvantage the business.
Other house-building businesses, especially franchised systems, are also understood to have laid off staff lately due to fewer house sales.
Rising interest rates and low residential sales volumes are thought to be influencing the market but the slowdown is yet to be displayed in Stats NZ housing consent data.
