Napier builders go under with $1m debt

Napier building company Flood & Beattie has gone into liquidation, leaving debts expected to total nearly $1 million — and five houses unfinished.

The company ceased trading at 9am on June 1 after being voluntarily placed into liquidation.

Liquidator Kenneth Oliver, of Contact Management Limited, whose job it is to try to recover money on behalf of the company's creditors, said it was unclear how much money the company owed but "it would be in the region of a million dollars".

"I have a file chocker-block full of creditors," Mr Oliver said.

Under the list of preferential creditors, staff were the first to receive money, followed by secured creditors, the Inland Revenue Department and then unsecured creditors.

All of the company's former 12 staff had been paid their wages, but none had received holiday pay.

The company's bank was the only secured creditor and there were between 80 and 90 creditors associated with the building trade owed a total of about $700,000. He said those creditors had been told of the company's liquidation.

Mr Oliver said it would take at least three months to confirm the exact amount owed and to determine who would be paid.

He said it was unlikely that enough money would be recovered for all creditors to be paid.

The future of the five houses that remain unfinished was also unclear, Mr Oliver said.

"Its my job to see that they are finished."

Flood & Beattie's sole director, Angus Beattie, told Hawke's Bay Today he would make a comment today, but failed to attend an interview this morning.

Flood & Beattie was first incorporated in August 1994.

The company had received Master Builder awards during the past few years, but the president of Hawke's Bay Master Builders' Association, Mark Hamilton, said Flood & Beattie was not a member when it was liquidated.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY