Sock factory project fails

Westport's sock factory has unravelled, taking with it six jobs and more than $400,000 of ratepayers' money.

The factory was Buller District Council's first, and biggest, economic investment from the $7 million it received in the Government's $120 million West Coast forestry compensation package.

Buller deputy mayor Graeme Neylon said the factory had been set up to fail with too little capital and too little equipment. "We were selling socks for less than what we were making them for," he said.

"We have been under-capitalised, over-staffed. We have had our costings wrong. We have tried to remedy all those things but at the end of the day I think the cards were probably stacked against us from day one.

"I think the council realises it's judgment day. We have to face up to what we've done and face responsibility."

West Coast Socks was to close yesterday, less than three years after it opened with a $450,000 Buller District Council loan and 14 workers.

The council has put a total of $678,000 into the factory and Neylon expects it will have lost more than $400,000.

- NZPA