Inspection firm in limbo
The owner of a vehicle compliance and certification company is still trying to find a suitable new home for his business after its Christchurch premises were severely damaged in a fire four months ago.
Auto Inspection Services (AIS) has been unable to operate since a September 2024 blaze in the suburb of Sydenham and hopes of opening up somewhere else early this year remain on hold.
Nick Owens, managing director, told Autofile Online he has yet to find the “right place at the right price”, with most of the properties that would be suitable being located too far from the city centre.
“We’re still planning on getting back up and running but disappointingly it’s taking much longer to get going again than we expected,” he explains.
“The premises we have seen are either way too big or too small or just too far away from where we need to be.
“If you go too far out of the central city, where we were based, you would end up needing more staff to move cars around and we can’t justify that extra expense.
“The other challenge has been that some places that have been empty for a couple of years have looked okay but the landlords either aren’t interested or want more money than we consider the building is worth.”
Owens notes most of his customers are in the central city and other compliance shops, including a couple previously located on Christchurch’s outskirts, have moved into central areas in recent years “because that’s where you need to be unless you have a specific customer base nearby”.
He adds the company needs to find somewhere for the long term as trying to set up the business in a temporary location and then shift again soon after would cost too much.
“There’s no way we can absorb two moves, we have to find somewhere suitable from the start,” he continues.
“It’s a balancing act of wanting to get up and running to keep our customers happy but, equally, we can’t afford to set up in a premises that’s not going to be suitable for us.
“A lot of places got split up after the 2011 earthquake into office and warehouse space, which doesn’t work for us because the cost of getting those sites back to being entirely a warehouse and workshop space is prohibitive.”
The September 26 fire at an industrial site on Colombo Street, where AIS had been based for about 10 years, started at a neighbouring business and was attended by about 50 firefighters.
Flames spread and wrecked about 30 per cent of the roof at AIS and about 30 vehicles were written off after being burnt or suffering smoke damage.
Owens says AIS has business interruption insurance in place, so the company’s staff are still employed and have been paid wages since the incident.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand investigated the blaze and a spokesperson says the cause of the fire was identified as a lithium-ion battery discarded amongst a waste pile in a part of the building used by Enviro NZ.
“The damage to the building was extensive, with the roof and cladding burnt through in multiple areas,” they add.
Owens says AIS returning to the Colombo Street site is unlikely as the building’s owners are still assessing the state of the property and he does not expect any rebuild to be completed before the end of the year.
“Plus our insurers won’t let us back in there with a refuse station next door, they are very particular about any potential neighbours and the construction of any building, so there’s a lot we have to consider when looking at potential premises.
“For now, we’ll just take things as they come. We have got real estate agents working out what might be available and we’ll just keep looking until we find the right place for us.”
