Superyacht builder created only 100 jobs

A company that estimated it would create 350 jobs as part of the so-called jobs machine has created only about 100 jobs, the Government has confirmed.

Act leader Rodney Hide continued to question Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday about the fortunes of Sovereign Yachts after it established a superyacht enterprise in Auckland.

In 2001, Helen Clark and Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton welcomed Sovereign Yachts' move to New Zealand as it was predicted to create 350 jobs within two years and generate export earnings of $600 million over five years.

Helen Clark confirmed that the company had not done as well as hoped.

"The company today informed the Ministry of Economic Development that it currently has 75 workers and estimated another 20 to 25 are employed by sub-contractors doing Sovereign Yachts' work," she said.

"While the numbers fall short of the predictions originally made by the Ministry of Economic Development, they still amount to more people in work than if the company hadn't located there at all."

Mr Hide asked whether the jobs were worth the deal that saw the company's owner, Bill Lloyd, receive 4ha of Auckland waterfront property for less than $500,000.

Helen Clark said there could be all sorts of reasons that companies did not do as well as predicted but there was no doubt the economy as a whole was doing well.

She said more than 200,000 new jobs had been created under Labour

Earlier Mr Hide said the company employed fewer than 10 people, had built only one yacht and had credit problems in Canada.

He told Parliament a report from American credit agency Equifax, dated September 1, showed 14 collections claims totalling $196,810 against the company, 17 legal suits totalling $1.8 million and eight judgments totalling $805,600.

It gave the company a credit rating of 41, meaning it was high risk.

Mr Lloyd said yesterday he had sold the Canadian arm of his business, blaming an economic downturn there. "There's no debts whatsoever, and we actually even came out of it with money," he said.

- NZPA