Fifty jobs go as Salthouse Marine closes 

Source: ONE NewsSalthouse Marine boat

Salthouse Marine Ltd is in the hands of a receiver and is closing with the loss of 51 jobs.

Receiver John Price of HPL Partners said he was called in last Thursday by a private investor.

"I have closed the company and all of the staff have been laid off," Price said.

Two boats near completion were being finished and a decision was yet to be made on a large project. He declined to put a figure on the size of the receivership.

The company's boats are described as hand built with lavish interiors, while designed for rugged sport fishing.

"What's occurred here is very sad," Price said.

The company produced "a very world class product".

The closure of the boat builder comes just ahead of the Auckland Boat show on March 11 to March 14.

The Salthouse name has been part of New Zealand's boat building heritage for about 60 years.

Brothers Bob and John Salthouse began building boats in the early 1950s before Bob left to start up his own boat building company, Salthouse Marine, in 1983.

Greenhithe based Salthouse Boatbuilders is a separate business and remains in operation.

At the beginning of last year, Henderson based Salthouse Marine employed just over 100 staff but several waves of redundancies were made in the early part of 2009 as the economy slowed.