Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — One of the longtime players in the local construction industry is closing its doors. According to Phil Boylen, CEO of Fletcher Construction NZ, in a phone interview, yesterday, “Last month, the difficult decision was made to close the Fletcher Construction operation in American Samoa.”

The lack of future work in the territory for the company is the reason for closing down the company, he told Samoa News.

“We are close to delivering the only two major projects currently underway. At the time of decision making, we were unable to identify a secure pipeline of future work to support the operation remaining open,” said Boylen.

The company is also closing another branch in the South Pacific. The CEO said, “We will also be closing our operations in Tonga due to a large planned project being deferred.”

The company has 65 employees in American Samoa with Mr. Dean Hudson as its local manager and it  has 12 employees in Tonga.

Where possible, Fletcher plans to redeploy affected employees to other parts of its business, Boylen said.

Boylen stated that the decision was not made lightly. “As we head into an uncertain economic climate, we had to make this tough decision to position the business for the future, in particular in our other island operations in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.”

Samoa News understands that Fletcher has been selling off some of its equipment in the lead up to closing down. Advertisements have been running in the Samoa News.

A representative from the company’s headquarters in New Zealand was in the territory recently to make arrangements for the closure.

Boylen said they are currently working through what they will do with their remaining plant and machinery.

Fletcher will be well-remembered in the community for the beautiful attention-to-detail building projects it completed in the territory. These include the Centennial Building, the AP Lutali Executive Office Building and the Tauese Pita Sunia Ocean Center — all in Utulei — the Community Swimming Pool located in the Pala Lagoon area, and the Fagatogo Market, to name a few.

It also renovated the iconic Gov. H. Rex Lee Auditorium — “fale laumei” as well as the High Court House in Fagatogo.