Rain pushes Auckland construction firm with more than 100 employees into liquidation

Tuesday, 7 February 2023

07-02-23 Stuff image by David White.JacksCo, which recently went into liquidation, built this building in Sylvia Park

An Auckland-based construction firm and building equipment supplier has gone bust, with recent weather events noted as a contributing factor.

Jacksco Civil’s phone number was not answered on Tuesday and the company’s website had been taken down, but records on The Wayback Machine internet archived show in January the company claimed to have more than 100 employees.

Liquidators Christopher McCullagh and Stephen Lawrence wrote in their first report that the director had advised the company suffered delays in completing contracts due to the Covid-19 pandemic, staffing issues and more recently, weather conditions.

“This led to significant cost increases on projects, resulting in significant losses being incurred on some projects,” the report said.

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An interior shot of the building that Jacksco were involved in constructing.

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“As a result, the company’s cash reserves were depleted. Given the slowdown in the construction industry, cash reserves seemed unlikely to recover.

A screenshot of the Jacksco website, which has been taken down.

“Therefore, the company’s shareholder resolved to put both Jacksco and the company into liquidation, to conduct their orderly wind-up.”

Jacksco Civil utilised plant and equipment owned by the related company, Jacksco, which was also put into liquidation.

Jacksco Civil was estimated to have a little over $3.7 million in assets at the time of liquidation, which did not include the value of materials, which was not yet known.

Jacksco Civil owed Inland Revenue (IR) a little over $350,000, more than $5.4m to ASB, and a little over $3.2m to unsecured creditors, which included material suppliers and tradespeople.

Jacksco, which also owned a civil construction plant, was estimated to have assets of just over $2.15m, although a large chunk of this was in the form of a loan receivable from Jacksco Civil.

The company was estimated to have more than $5.95m in motor vehicles, machinery, portable buildings and specialised equipment, although these were secured by the way of a general security agreement.

The company owed ASB more than $5.4m, owed IR more than $132,000, and owed unsecured creditors over $422,000.

Lawrence said he would be making no further comment on the liquidation at this point.

Both companies list Simon Jacks as the sole director, and the Jacksco website also lists him as the managing director.

The website describes him as having over 30 years’ experience in property development and civil construction, during which time he had managed multimillion-dollar projects both nationally and internationally.

The company has been approached for comment.

Jacksco’s website stated the company was founded in 2016 and focused on a mix of small residential subdivisions and commercial subcontracts, but grew quickly.

Projects Jacksco Civil was involved in included a $16m-plus civil contract on the Wirihana development – a Greenfield development located just over a kilometre to the south of Manukau city centre.

The website lists another $16m-plus contact for a retirement sector development in Te Awa in Napier, which once complete would have 317 homes.

The Government Gazette notes liquidators were appointed to Jacksco Civil Ltd and Jacksco Ltd on January 27.

Master Builders chief executive David Kelly said every building and construction company in Auckland had been affected by the recent flooding and weather events.

“Each company is affected differently and there is no particular pattern to how they have responded,” he said.

Jobs from flood repairs have been predicted to provide an unexpected boon to the industry, which some experts believed was entering a bust cycle.

“With many variables at play, it is currently too early to tell what the ongoing impact on the building and construction sector will be,” Kelly said.

“Time will tell if it leads to a boom in construction in the region. However, while many builders and tradespeople are currently busy, enquiries are starting to slow down, this may mean there will be more capacity in the market to fix the flood-damaged homes.”

CLARIFICATION: An earlier headline on this story said that Auckland’s recent floods contributed. The liquidators cited weather disruption but were appointed before the flooding event.