Video: Takitimu Seafoods building to get new tenants
The Napier building that used to house the ill-fated Takitimu Seafoods Limited could soon be buzzing with life again.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated (NKII) closed the fisheries business, which was established in 2019, in April last year. It had reported three years of financial losses totalling $14.9 million to its shareholder Ngāti Kahungunu Asset Holdings Company (KAHC), the investment arm of NKII. Takitimu Seafoods Limited closed its retail store, online store and wholesale business in Ahuriri last year affecting 33 staff.
NKII executive chair Bayden Barber said last year that it had been a difficult decision to make, but was the correct one to make.
Speaking to Hawke’s Bay App earlier this month, Barber said they had a shortlist of interested parties for the building, which is owned by NKII.
“We're just working through who we think would be the most appropriate. It's set up perfectly for a seafood type business. The factory, the fish and chip shop, offices, the whole thing. Yeah. So at the moment those are the organisations expressing interest.”
He said that there was an opportunity for NKII to partner with another party, but this would not mean NKII would invest any capital in a venture.
“The partnering we would be looking at would be the need to have jobs for our rangitahi, that type of partnership. We wouldn't be putting skin in the game, so to speak.”
The accompanying video is an interview that Hawke’s Bay App had with Bayden Barber about the closure of Takitimu Seafoods in April last year
