Statement from Receivers of Fruehauf Pacific Ltd

Thursday 1 March 2007

Statement from Receivers of Fruehauf Pacific Ltd

On Friday 23 February 2007, Malcolm Hollis and John Fisk of PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed receivers of Fruehauf Pacific Ltd, trading as Fruehauf Trailers (“Fruehauf”).

According to the company, the trailer building industry is currently suffering from an over-supply of manufacturing capacity. Fruehauf had insufficient ongoing work required to maintain the existing workforce of 60 employees. Unfortunately, as a result, 13 were laid off yesterday. Of these 13 employees, some were union members and some not.

On-site union representatives met with the receivers on the day the receivership commenced, Friday 23 February, again on Tuesday 27 February prior to the announcements of the lay-offs, and then again straight after the lay-offs on 28 February. All meetings with the union representatives and the local organiser have been open, constructive and well received.

To make the lay-off process easier we arranged for a local chaplain, representatives from Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ), and a local recruitment agent to attend the business at the time of the lay-off announcement to assist those affected.

All employees, whether unionised or not, have already been paid their pre-receivership wages. Holiday pay will be paid when funds become available, either when the business is sold as a going concern or when the assets are sold. It is anticipated this will take some 2-3 months.

Fruehauf continues to trade as normal with 47 staff in 3 locations. The staff have been excellent in providing their ongoing support of the business, as have customers and suppliers. The receivers are working through a process of finding a new owner of this well-known and established business. In the meantime, customers and suppliers should continue to deal with Fruehauf in the normal way.

ENDS

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