Corbel in liquidation
An adjudicated ruling last Friday in favour of the owners of an Auckland apartment building has led to the collapse of Corbel Construction.
Directors Mark Wells and Craig Jones accepted legal advice that the company could not continue to trade while it faced a major bill that would effectively make it insolvent.
Corbel Construction, established in Christchurch in 2000, began to wind down its post-earthquake residential building and opened an Auckland office in 2015.
Wells expressed sympathy with those affected and praised his supportive staff but did not wish to be quoted directly.
Bigger problems than first envisaged were uncovered when the cladding was removed from the Parnell Terraces apartments in Auckland, leading to disputes.
Wells and Jones had stepped back from direct involvement in the company about 18 months ago at the same time staff numbers locally were reduced by more than 100 direct employees in Christchurch.
Corbel has five active contracts still under way.
In addition to the Auckland apartment projects, it has worked on commercial buildings, upgraded four schools in Christchurch, and has worked with district health boards in Auckland and Christchurch.
Andrew Oorschot of Ashton Wheelans was appointed the liquidator on Monday by resolution of shareholders.
He said it would take him at least a week to come to grips with what the creditors were owed.
The main security-holder is understood to be one of the main banks.
Corbel employed about a dozen people directly but was a project manager that worked mostly with subcontractors, Oorschot said.
Corbel’s website, Facebook and LinkedIn pages have been taken down.
A picture is emerging of a company that has been retrenching for nearly two years, including the departure in October of chief executive Ross Meikle. Meikle is a pre-construction manager at Decmil, and declined to comment on Corbel’s collapse.
Last year the company said it had signed $35 million of new projects in Auckland. At the time Kevin Burke, Corbel’s Auckland general manager, said Auckland would contribute about
30 per cent of the company’s targeted annual revenue of more than $50m in its first full year of operations.
Corbel’s Auckland office in Grey Lynn is vacant after taking a lease
18 months ago.
The company is majority owned by Craig Jones, Jane Madison-Jones and Mark and Rachel Wells.
Corbel had averaged more than
25 per cent growth per year over the past eight years. When the company expanded to Auckland it had a goal to become a $100m national contractor by 2018.
Before it was taken down, the company’s website stated that it had ‘‘adopted a strategy of narrowing our focus to key customers’’.
In a press release the company last year said its projects included:
the $3.5m refurbishment of 560 Mount Roskill Rd in Mt Roskill, Auckland, to heritage status;
the refurbishment of the historic Ellen Melville Centre in Auckland’s High St for $4.5m;
the construction of amenities at the Muriwai Beach Campground on behalf of Panuku Development Auckland, for $2.4m;
re-roofing five buildings at Auckland’s Birkenhead College for $3.8m on behalf of the Ministry of Education, to be completed in November 2017;
the $350,000 refurbishment of the Fraser McDonald geriatric mental health facility for the Auckland DHB, to be completed in April 2017;
the $12.6m Parnell Terraces refurbishment of 84 townhouses in Auckland, to be completed in January 2018;
A $160,000 fourth stage of seismic strengthening of the Market Garden apartments in St Lukes, Auckland, to be completed later this month.