Recipient of controversial tourism grant up on the market

A major Queenstown beneficiary of controversial government funding for strategic tourism goods is on sale for approximately $ 4 million.

Outback New Zealand, trading as Nomad Safaris, Info & Track, and Info & Snow, received a $ 500,000 grant and a $ 1 million loan for Covid aid funding last year.

The $ 270 million package was controversial after Queenstown’s AJ Hackett Bungy received a $ 5.1 million grant and loan while others missed it – the General Auditor reviewed the “clarity and transparency of the program criteria” .

David Gatward-Ferguson, chief executive officer of Outback NZ, says if he sold tomorrow he would return the loan and probably wouldn’t get the final installment of his grant, which is due in August.

Funding, he added, has helped keep his business going and has employed eight full-time and eight part-time employees.

“Otherwise we would have had to put most parts of the business to sleep and just keep the bare essentials, back to where we started driving 27 years ago [his wife and co-owner] Amanda does everything else. “

Even so, he still claims the funding process was “appalling”.

“Like many people, we almost didn’t apply because the main condition was that you had exhausted all other financing options and we decided not to sell our family home.”

Gatward-Ferguson says they intended to do so last February, “however [Covid] Events have overtaken us ”.

He and Amanda have a “mildly mentally challenged” son who doesn’t like to leave the house, “so we want to move into a small business that we can easily run from home.”

Last year they had also bought a craft gin and vodka shop, Wild Diamond, to give their son a job.

“If we don’t sell Nomad Safaris now, I am pursuing a few opportunities to make it bigger.”

Tourism Properties.com local agent Adrian Chisholm is marketing the deal on a large scale and 30 potential buyers have shown their interest, he says.

“We are discussing with several parties.”

Fortunately, he is aware that banks are lending money for tourism and hospitality businesses again after they pulled their horns over Covid.

Chisholm says it is very rare for a company with a 27-year trading history “and such an iconic tourism product” to launch.

“Vendors sweat blood 27 years building this business and some smart buyers can build on that and take it to the next level.”

scoop@scene.co.nz