Queensland-based building materials company Saxon has fallen into liquidation after the company’s foray into solar hot water was brought undone by uncertainty regarding legislation around solar rebates.
The collapse comes days after solar providers in New South Wales complained that uncertainty over feed-in tariffs was causing more solar providers to collapse.
Peter Sachs Industries, which traded under the 100-year-old brand Saxon Home, fell into liquidation in mid-June. The company had been selling hot water systems and recently moved into solar power.
Liquidator Raj Khatri at Worrels said the move into solar had not been smooth.
“The company did try to invest into solar but the products imported from China simply weren’t good enough,” he says.
“They were having a lot of issues and had to come to a decision to continue with the hot water business. Eventually the directors decided that the business could not continue.”
Saxon was contacted for comment but SmartCompany was referred to the liquidator.
Michael Sachs, who is involved with the family-owned business, was also contacted but could not be reached before publication.
Khatri said he could not reveal an exact revenue figure but confirmed that the company had about 20 employees and he believed turnover was in millions of dollars.
“All the staff were properly notified and we have continued to pay appropriate entitlements. The biggest debts to anyone are the employees,” he says.
Khatri says part of the problem is the uncertainty over solar legislation. Queensland still has a feed-in tariff but changes to legislation mean any system bigger than 5Kw will not be able to be used for feed-in payments.
He says rumours in the industry of upcoming legislation led to uncertainty on the part of buyers.
“There is no legislation yet but there are rumours of that coming through so the directors had to make a decision,” he says.
“There are three major players in this area for hot water tanks and Saxon was one of them.
“But all of these businesses are finding it tough because of all the legislative changes. There is definitely a lot of uncertainty.”
Last week Carbon Management Solutions co-founder Amber Ferguson told SmartCompany more solar hot water companies were falling over, especially in New South Wales where the government has not given any indication about the direction of future legislation.
Ferguson said his company was not prepared to sell solar systems to users and have them miss out on possible future rebates.
Khatri says the business cannot be revived by the intellectual property and the Saxon name is receiving some interest from buyers.
Saxon’s origins stretch back to the early 1800s when Johann Sachs emigrated to Australia and founded and managed a carrying business which operated between Ballarat and Bendigo during the Gold Rush.
The company subsequently shifted to Brisbane and became a prominent building, hardware and marine sector supplier. It listed on the share market in 1955 and went private 30 years later.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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