HamiltonJet: Battling the headwinds

HamiltonJet's Keith Whiteley, with a waterjet unit bound for an oil industry crewboat in Louisiana. Photo / Simon Baker

HamiltonJet has faced strong headwinds lately, but a more favourable breeze is beginning to blow out of Europe.

The Christchurch company, founded by jetboat inventor Sir William Hamilton, suffered a 40 per cent reduction in business in the past two years. But new markets are emerging, such as European wind farms.

"One minute we had record sales, the next a record decline," says Keith Whiteley, managing director of parent company CWF Hamilton. "You'd have to go back 25 years to when we last saw anything like this. We actually expected it to go on longer, so that's a bit of good news."

At the depths of the downtown HamiltonJet cut 130 workers from its 400 staff - only three months after expanding.

"Things have picked up since Christmas, but we're still about 40 per cent off the peak we had in early '09," says Whiteley. "All our markets are starting to pick up, but it's just how sustainable it will be. High currencies pose a serious problem too."

HamiltonJet's base is all export, with its waterjet propulsion technology used by high-speed patrol boats, ferries, crew and fire boats, fishing vessels, landing barges and pleasure craft.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has created a conundrum: the many boats fighting the disaster could boost demand, but the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling will reduce boat activity in the Gulf.

But a new sector has developed, with boats needed to service offshore wind farms in Britain and Europe.

"We're seeing a lot of activity there, with boats taking engineers out to maintain them. We're also benefiting from fireboats going into waterjets," Whiteley says.

As well as staff cuts, HamiltonJet moved to a nine-day fortnight for eight months.

"We're taking on staff again now, but I can't see it rising back up to 400 in the foreseeable future. We're pushing very hard to grow again - we're at about 60 per cent capacity so we have a heap of headroom."

HamiltonJet made its aim to retain skills and keep the R&D programme running. It even introduced two new products during the recession.

"R&D is our future, our investment. Keeping it going with new products was a way of employing people we would otherwise have to let go," Whiteley says.

Keith Whiteley
Managing director, CWF Hamilton

* Your big hope?
That the problems in Europe don't cause another crash. For HamiltonJet, it's growing again back to where we were.

* Your big worry?
The European situation - I don't know what's going to happen there.

* What would help right now?
A change in the exchange rate, but that's not going to happen in a hurry.