Heath and Janelle Whyte, of Cromwell, are listed as the only directors of H&J Building Ltd, which was placed into voluntary liquidation.
They could not be contacted by the ODT despite several attempts yesterday. Liquidator Trevor Laing, of Dunedin, did not know their whereabouts.
Mr Laing said he had only just been appointed as the liquidator, and was in the process of notifying creditors about the company's financial status.
"The amount of debt owed, which is based on information given to me by Mr and Mrs Whyte, is not massive.
"There are a number of creditors," he said.
Mr Laing said he was not in a position to elaborate last night, but said more detailed information about the company should be posted on the New Zealand Companies Office Database website in the next week. Queenstown-based company Newco Builders Ltd appointed H&J Building as a labour contractor on the Nichols Garden Centre being built at Cromwell.
Newco project manager Bruce Perry said as the main contractor employed by Nichols Garden Group Ltd, Newco sub-contracted labour work out to H&J Building. Mr Perry said he received an email from Mr Whyte last week, notifying Newco of H&J's liquidation status, effectively terminating the labour contract immediately.
"I was shocked . . .
"I had no indication he was in financial trouble. We had a good working relationship and Heath never said anything about possibly going into liquidation or terminating the contract.
"I have tried to contact him about 20 times since, but his phone number is no longer allocated and I understand he packed up his house in the weekend and headed straight for Australia," Mr Perry said.
He said Mr Whyte had employed six labourers and one sub-contracted labourer to work on Nichols, and all seven lost their jobs when Mr Whyte declared liquidation. Mr Perry re-employed four of the seven workers, as well as two other local carpenters, to help complete the job at Nichols.
