Pudding Hill complex up for sale

Press, 16 July 1982, Page 3

Pudding Hill complex up for sale

The Pudding Hill recreational complex near Methven had been forced into receivership by a “top heavy" loans ' repayment schedule, said the owner, Mr Andrew Yates, yesterday. Although the staff had been paid off and the doors closed only two days ago, the bank had had the’keys "for about a month,” Mr Yates said.

“We had been working on a hand-to-mouth basis to try to keep the place going and we have put our last penny into it. but to no avail.”

The bankruptcy was not caused or hastened by a fall in demand. “Far from it." Mr Yates said.

The complex will be offered for auction as a mortgagee sale by 'W. E. Simes and Company, Ltd, on July 28.

A spokesman for the company, Mr D. Sutton, said that news of the closing had “caused consternation in Methven" and among skiers who had bookings at the complex. .

"We want people to know that' there are people interested in buying the place and that if it goes to auction it will definitely open again," he said.

But Mr Yates said that many bookings would be affected because it would not be until the end-of August that the new owners could officially take over.

The chairman of the Mount Hutt Ski and Tourist Company, Ltd. Mr Peter Yeoman, said that he was “sad and disappointed" that the complex had closed. But the effect on Mount Hutt

would be "minimal." because Pudding Hill was only one of the many accommodation complexes. “It provides 60 beds, which is not many out of 1200," he said.

However, it did offer “a separate quality range" which would make relocation at short notice difficult. The board had received no warning of the closing, he said, but it was "common knowledge” that the complex had been experiencing financial difficulty for the last two years. A spokesman for the New Zealand Snow Centre said that it had bookings “like many others" but that it had not yet been advised officially that Pudding Hill had folded. “It was just a news item," he said.