By PHILIP CHANDLER
A new owner could soon be steering a major Queenstown jetboat company.
An offshore party’s doing due diligence on buying KJet, but managing director Shaun Kelly — who bought into the company 35 years ago — stresses the deal mightn’t go through.
Kelly — nowadays 50/50 owner with Skeggs Group, which owns tourism giant Southern Discoveries — says ‘‘it’s not a firesale because of Covid’’.
‘‘Business is really healthy, and we’ve fared well right through this last couple of years.’’
Annual passenger numbers had dropped about two-thirds from 70,000 to 80,000, in pre-Covid times, but the company had retained its 21-strong staff, including seven drivers.
However, he’d had ‘‘a bit of a health scare’’, and received a kidney transplant last Christmas.
‘‘I’ve sort of had to back off a bit, really.’’
Kelly says the company hadn’t been for sale, but had been approached by several parties — ‘‘we’re testing the water’’.
Billed as the world’s oldest commercial jetboat company, KJet — originally Kawarau Jet Services — traces its history back to 1958.
From when Kelly bought in, the company had grown from one jetboat to a fleet of eight, ‘‘the biggest in New Zealand’’, its website states.
Skeggs Group bought its stake in 2011.
Kelly, 61, is a former NZ jetboat racing champ and placed fifth in the world jetboat marathon in the United States in 2000.
