Ngāti Kahungunu, which recorded $9m surplus in 2023-2024, is now relooking at Takitimu Seafoods site

The former Hawke's Bay Seafoods and Takitimu Seafoods site in Napier, empty but with hopes of a new tenant in the new year. Photo / NZME.

A turnaround in Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated finances that were hit by multimillion-dollar losses in the failure of fisheries enterprise Takitimu Seafoods has its chairman hopeful the iwi will soon be able to buy the leased site and have it tenanted pending future development.

While the iwi, whose territory extends from Nūhaka in Northern Hawke’s Bay to Cape Palliser in South Wairarapa, with members around the world, owns the buildings at the corner of Pandora Rd and West Quay, Napier, the land is leasehold and owned by Napier City Council.

But Bayden Barber, nearing the end of a first three-year term as chair of New Zealand’s third-biggest iwi, says it’s a “beautiful site” and, having put Takitimu Seafoods “to rest”, the iwi wants it, and is working with the council and Treaty post-settlement entities to secure it.

Barber says the profile and potential of the site make it worth having and it would “add stability” to iwi assets.

The hopes come after the iwi’s annual meeting, held last Saturday at Splash Planet, Hastings, was told the iwi had recorded a June-year surplus of $9,041,141, which compared with a 2022-2023 year deficit of $2,092,104 after losses of almost $4.5 million from “discontinued operations”.

The former Hawke's Bay Seafoods and Takitimu Seafoods site in Napier, empty but with hopes of a new tenant in the new year. Photo / NZME

While asset-strong, the iwi had been unable to produce its financial statement for last year’s annual meeting. It was finally approved at a Special General Meeting in September.

The latest figures were also late and unable to be published as usual in the annual report booklet delivered, but did have them available in time for the meeting and they were adopted.

Barber says he now expects a fostering of the iwi, including financial statements on time for the November 2025 AGM, by which time the iwi’s triennial elections will also have been held.

Takitimu Seafoods was established in April 2019 with the Ngāti Kahungunu Holding Company’s buy-out of co-shareholders in Pandora-based multi-level fish operation Hawke’s Bay Seafoods.

But the venture collapsed in April 2023, with losses to the iwi calculated at $14.9 million, and losses of about 70 jobs.

He said the business had been “bleeding millions of dollars” and there appeared to have been no plan to correct the slide.

“There had been underlying issues hanging over the iwi for a number of years,” Barber said. “We had to fix the house and set a solid foundation. Now we’re looking at opportunities for the future.”

It had been “a hard couple of years”, including the replacing of most of the board of commercial arm the Kahungunu Asset Holding Co, on which he sits as the iwi representative.

“We had to bring in new expertise and build a whole new board,” he said, particularly praising the work of holding company co-chairs Mike Devonshire and Ratahi Cross, adding: “They’ve had a huge job. I’d put this board up against the best in the country.”

The holding company had been unable to return a dividend to the iwi for the two previous years but reported $2.28m in trading profit from sales of fishing quota, a lease of Tautane Station (which the iwi bought in 2013) and from property leases and dividends, while there had been a book gain of $645,000 on revaluation of shares.

There had, however, been a $1.3m book loss on the revaluation of the sheep and cattle station and a $200,000 loss during the year on the winding-up of Takitimu Seafoods and K3 Developments.

At the end of June the company had equity of over $76 million, including fishery settlement assets.

The iwi will soon also be consulting on its 25-year vision to succeed Kahungunu 2026, the vision established in 2001.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.