Skellerup Holdings Limited escapes serious business disruption

The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch on Saturday 4 September 2010 has caused a lot of infrastructural damage within the city and fortunately it appears that there are no casualties and as few as two serious injuries.

Skellerup has two factory locations and a separate warehouse in Christchurch all located in Woolston, 3km south east of Christchurch whilst the epicenter of the earthquake is located in Darfield, 45 km west of Christchurch. Skellerup employs more than 270 people in New Zealand with over 200 of those employees in Woolston.

Acting Chief Executive Officer David Mair said that even though there was a shift working on site at the time of the earthquake, no one has been injured. “It is incredible that not only have there been no injuries to staff, it appears that there is little or no significant damage to buildings or machinery. Our immediate focus is to make sure that all our staff are safe and well. Obviously the next concern has been infrastructure. Electricity, town water supply and all computer and communication systems are functioning on all three sites. Local management has been carefully checking the sites and the outlook is very positive.

The warehouse located on Curries Road appears to have been unaffected. Racking and inventory is all in good order and the expectation is that ex-stock deliveries will be available as needed. The other small production unit in Dyers Road also appears to be unaffected and all systems appear to be ready to begin production. The main site in Marshall Street contains critical machinery for the production of many of our key dairy products. All machinery relating to the Dairy industry were safely and correctly shut down, in line with company procedures. The attitude of the management and staff on site has been magnificent.

This is great news for ensuring continuing supply to our Customers. With the warehouse operation seemingly unaffected, we should be able to meet any immediate demand from existing inventories. The other factories will open after confirmation by independent engineers that the structures are indeed safe as we expect. In other words, there should be little impact on our supplies to Customers. Our NZ dairy season was just beginning to slow down and the stock build for the overseas markets happens later in the year.

Skellerup has comprehensive material damage and business interruption insurance cover. Although this has been a major event for the people, production and distribution units in Christchurch, we do not see any material financial impact on the business at this time.

For more information please contact:

David Mair
Acting CEO
Ph +64 21 708 021