Stonewood founder in the green
The founder of the Stonewoods home group is using his talents in another business, reports Chris Hutching.
Stonewood Homes founder Brent Mettrick is on the comeback trail, as receivers and liquidators finish their job of winding up five of his companies.
The assets of the franchisor, Stonewood Group, were sold last year by the receivers to a company owned by the Chow brothers, with several unaffected Stonewood companies continuing to operate around the country.
Mettrick is now general manager of Green Homes NZ based in Christchurch, but with a national presence including Auckland.
He was approached by the company’s owners and said it was an offer he initially turned down.
‘‘I’d had enough of the building industry, but I was approached more than once, so I’m an employee and I’m enjoying it. I’ve got to get on and live my life, what’s left of it.’’
Mettrick found it hard coming to grips with a media pack that had frequently benefited from his preparedness to talk as an industry leader over two decades. He feels a bit ‘‘done over’’.
Others around at the time of the Stonewood collapse have moved on in different ways.
Warwick Isaacs, former Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority apparatchik, has been reappointed chief executive of the Chow-owned Stonewood group.
Isaacs has previously said he had concerns Stonewood’s finances but they had been allayed by senior executives.
Director Jim Boult resigned a few weeks before the February 2016 receivership and is now Queenstown’s mayor - he quit Stonewood because he was trying to put together a rescue package and said it would have been a conflict of interest.
Mettrick faced most of the Stonewood creditors.
‘‘I haven’t had an uncomfortable or aggressive confrontation with any of them,’’ said Mettrick, who is also a creditor.
‘‘I’m just head down and bum up. I have no likelihood of a personal guarantee coming at me.’’
Losing his income meant he had to sell his home and family bach of 35 years to help pay a tax bill.
‘‘That’s life. I have many good friends. We’re not dead in the water.
‘‘For 28 years we built thousands of houses. Unfortunately, I paid people money to run the company and it crashed. I lost more money than all the creditors.’’
Stonewood’s problems accelerated as building ran behind schedule - ‘‘jobs were running slowly and cash running backwards and when that’s happening you’re using work-in-progress money’’.
The collapse also occurred as Canterbury’s post-earthquake market was beginning to slow. It had surged from about 2000 new builds a year in the region, to more than 7000 after 2011 and is now cooling again.
Over the years Mettrick has contributed to his industry in a 10-year stint as president of Master Builders.
‘‘I also had eight years on the New Zealand Green Building Council and sponsored it with about $200,000.‘‘
The company he works for now promotes ‘‘green’’ homes with many energy and water-saving features.
Perhaps Mettrick’s philosophy is summed up by one of his favourite sayings - ‘‘better to regret having done something than not having done it’’.
The Mettrick companies currently with liquidators include Holmfirth Group, Holmfirth Properties, Stonewood Homes New Zealand (chief franchisor), Stonewood Homes, and Sterling Homes (Christchurch).
They were placed in receivership on February 22, and subsequently liquidation, owing unsecured creditors more than $15 million and ASB $8.5 million.
Some of the debt to ASB has been satisfied, but unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive any payback.
Another update will be posted by the Ernst & Young liquidators in two months, about the same time a direction will be sought from the High Court about the future of the liquidation.
There were 110 unfinished homes at the time of receivership with more than half now completed.
"I've got to get on and live my life, what's left of it."