Receivers ground HeliPro after tough winter

Photo / NZPA Ross Setford

HeliPro employs 70 people to run its 35 helicopters in NZ, Australia and Fiji.

Rick Lucas Helicopters, which owns the red helicopter tourism company HeliPro, has been tipped into receivership by its director after a tough winter led to unmanageable levels of debt.

Sole director of the business Rick Lucas appointed PwC partners John Fisk and David Bridgman as receivers for the Palmerston North-based company and its related businesses, the accounting firm said.

The HeliPro business employs 70 people and has 35 helicopters across its eight New Zealand bases as well as in Australia and Fiji.

As well as running tourist flights, HeliPro offers commercial services including firefighting, mining exploration, flight training and power line surveying and maintenance.

"They had too much debt and the last winter has not been good to them in terms of contract work they would normally have done," said PwC receiver John Fisk.

"A reasonable amount of the business that HeliPro does is events driven, whether it's from weather or fire, or whatever it might be," the receiver said.

"That work wasn't as regular as it has been in the past and that affected their ability to generate cashflow and that -- combined with the debt levels -- meant that the directors reviewed the business and determined it wasn't appropriate to keep trading in its current form."

Fisk said the fleet had been temporarily grounded, as the receivers worked with the Civil Aviation Authority and the company's engineers to ensure all helicopters were safe.

The receivers are looking to sell the business as a going concern either as a whole or in part and were yet to determine the extent of the debt.