130 jobs up in air at mill

The jobs of up to 130 mill workers hang in the balance after Rotorua's Tachikawa Forest Products was placed into receivership.

Receivers KordaMentha moved into the Vaughan Rd business yesterday and staff were told not to return to work for the time being while they sorted through the company's finances.

KordaMentha partner Brendon Gibson told the Rotorua Daily Post processing operations had stopped at the site and receivers were beginning the process to sell the business.

He said the company's directors had "asked for receivers to be appointed after it became apparent the additional capital the company required from its shareholders was not going to be available".

Mr Gibson said he understood operations had stopped earlier this week - or that it had at least been "on and off" over the past week. He said the Rotorua operation employed between 120 and 130 staff.

Mr Gibson said they met with staff yesterday morning to inform them of the situation. They would be assessing the situation during the next few days, including looking at whether it was viable to restart production while the business was on the market.

"We will be making that decision in the next short while."

He said while it was always a potentially difficult situation, he thought staff understood where the receivers were coming from.

"The company doesn't have the resources to continue to pay them at the moment."

Mr Gibson said staff would be paid on Tuesday for the period they had worked.

First Union general secretary Robert Reid described the news as "devastating".

The union represents about two-thirds of the staff and plan to meet with them on Monday to work out what they could do.

He said staff had been worried about the future of their jobs for the past six months at least - but that wouldn't lessen the blow.

"There will not be surprise, but there will be shock."

He said in the past weeks staff had been asked to take holidays and there were only a small number at work when the receivers went in yesterday.

While the workers hadn't yet lost their jobs, Mr Reid said if they were to, it would be "very, very difficult" for them to find work.

"It would be a devastating blow to those workers and to the community as well," he said.

"The union's number one priority is to do what it can to keep the mill going and to keep people in work. We will be talking to the new mayor of Rotorua and local MPs about the situation."

There was no answer when the Rotorua Daily Post called Tachikawa for comment late yesterday afternoon.