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Mike: former SolarZero employee reveals what went wrong for the company · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Former staff of solar panel subscription business Solar zero are
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  Speaker 2: planning to protest outside the multinational investment company black Rocks
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  Speaker 2: office Auckland Office tomorrow after Blackrock unexpectedly put Solar zero
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  Speaker 2: into liquidation. Now in twenty twenty, a fund managed by
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  Speaker 2: Blackrock became Solar Zero's sole shareholder, and earlier this week,
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  Speaker 2: Blackrock then made the decision to liquidate the business. Mike
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  Speaker 2: is an ex employee of Solar Zero.
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  Speaker 3: Hey Mike, Hi, Heather, how are you well?
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  Speaker 2: Thanks mate? What are you guys going to be protesting?
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  Speaker 3: Look? I think Heather, there's a sort of the main theme.
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  Speaker 3: We want to try and get a craft. As you know,
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  Speaker 3: we were made redundant four pm on Tuesday. No redundancy,
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  Speaker 3: no notice periods, no holiday pay. We have a significant
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  Speaker 3: number of our staff that live week by week. We've
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  Speaker 3: got a number of work permit holders. The desperation and
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  Speaker 3: the frustration from these guys is just it's so heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 3: It's not funny. You know, you've got an eleven trillion
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  Speaker 3: dollar company, foreign investor which we're trying to attract establish
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  Speaker 3: themselves in New Zealand this year the setup offices beginning
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  Speaker 3: of the year and within a year they have pretty
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  Speaker 3: much screwed over one hundred and sixty five people plus
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  Speaker 3: plus all our subcontractors and whatnot. So what we're essentially
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  Speaker 3: aiming to get is what is owed, which is the
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  Speaker 3: holiday pay that constitutes around it's around about one point
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  Speaker 3: four million. Notice period for those staff would be around
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  Speaker 3: one point six million. We have about three hundred thousand
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  Speaker 3: dollars outstanding with our contractors, and then our subcontractors which
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  Speaker 3: is our field service providers all around the country are
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  Speaker 3: owed in total around six hundred grand. And you know
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  Speaker 3: these guys are some of them are small operators and
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  Speaker 3: this this could actually you know, cause them to fold.
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  Speaker 3: So it's really worrying and it what it does is,
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  Speaker 3: I think is that if we let this, let this
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  Speaker 3: go go by, I think it's it's a really dangerous
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  Speaker 3: president for other foreign investors coming in thinking that they
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  Speaker 3: can treat New Zealand citizens and work permit holders like crap.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Now if I added that up correctly, then you're
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  Speaker 2: saying that in total the amount od is about four million.
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  Speaker 3: About four million, yeah, which is jump change for these guys.
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  Speaker 2: Quite for black Rock, which is you know, worth close
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  Speaker 2: to what twelve trillion US dollars, four million is absolutely nothing, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and you want them to make good.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, It's an ethical thing, you know, I think, you know,
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  Speaker 3: even if the simplistic wave and look, I'm not a
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  Speaker 3: financial person by any stretch of the imagination, but be
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  Speaker 3: sort of the black Rock by the debt from the data.
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  Speaker 3: They can pay the staff without any you know, avoiding
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  Speaker 3: any arguments around priority payments and stuff like that. And
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  Speaker 3: it really, as much as it's really sad to see
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  Speaker 3: Solar zero fold, this will at least, you know, keep
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  Speaker 3: the walls from the door for a little bit for
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  Speaker 3: these guys. And when we have to, you know, remember
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  Speaker 3: this is literally the worst time to be made redundant,
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  Speaker 3: a one month out from Christmas, you know, these guys.
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  Speaker 3: I just I actually see potentially some really awful things
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  Speaker 3: coming out of this if it can't be resolved.
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  Speaker 2: So what's gone wrong for the business, because I mean,
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  Speaker 2: this was something that was supposed to be doing really
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  Speaker 2: well and at one hundred and ninety five million dollars
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  Speaker 2: in credit lines, government had opened a facility of one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and forty five million for them, So what's gone wrong?
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  Speaker 3: I think from from someone who wasn't in the in
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  Speaker 3: the financial side of things, in very sort of middle management,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we think the staff were incredibly passionate. They
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  Speaker 3: really wanted a really positive outcome for customers. Was quite
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  Speaker 3: a complicated setup in order to be able to get
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  Speaker 3: that that financing facility and create you know, these this
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  Speaker 3: energy service that you know would save customers. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I think the average savings over twenty years and now
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  Speaker 3: our twenty five year contract was around twenty grand, you know,
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  Speaker 3: fixing in your up to ninety percent of your of
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  Speaker 3: your electricity. You know, such a good thing, right and
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  Speaker 3: sort of because over time energies prices are increasing at
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  Speaker 3: least five or six percent a year in the country.
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  Speaker 3: But we just I think, look, I think personally, I
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  Speaker 3: think there was probably things could have been handled a
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  Speaker 3: bit better with exec I think we also too, We're
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  Speaker 3: very close to being break even by the end of
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  Speaker 3: this financial year, you know, June next year. But for
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  Speaker 3: some reason the tap got turned off by black Rock
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  Speaker 3: and decided to liquidate, which again I don't think is
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  Speaker 3: that common in this country and just yeah, really sad
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  Speaker 3: state of affairs. I mean, they black Rock invested in
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  Speaker 3: us because we're doing some some technology smarts that actually
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  Speaker 3: know where else in the world's been done, and it's
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's it's it's a real void, I think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and it's not great a great loot for
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  Speaker 3: solar in New Zealand. We've only got a three percent
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  Speaker 3: solar penetration here, so three percent of homes here have solar,
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  Speaker 3: whereas our Ossie neighbors have thirty seven percent. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: this is it's just another kick in the guts for
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  Speaker 3: a pretty pretty awesome, you know, energy energy service that
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  Speaker 3: you know.
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  Speaker 2: Could really really help Kiwis Mike listen Beast of luck
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  Speaker 2: of the protest and thanks for talking us through it.
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  Speaker 2: It's Mike, who's a former Solar zero employee.
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