Roberts Hawaii lays off 10 amid visitor slump
The president resigns for a Superferry post
Roberts Hawaii, a family owned and operated transportation, activities and tour company, announced yesterday it recently laid off 10 workers, mostly from management ranks.
The layoffs, which preceded the resignation of Roberts Hawaii President Neil Takekawa, are part of the ongoing slump in Hawaii's visitor industry. As occupancy and visitor counts have dropped across the islands, companies throughout Hawaii's struggling visitor industry have had to cut back and restructure.
The layoffs occurred on July 3, said Dave Mark, a spokesman for Roberts Hawaii.
Takekawa, who joined Roberts in early 2007, said that his decision to accept a position with the Hawaii Superferry as vice president of sales and marketing was unrelated to the layoffs at his former company.
"For me, it was just a great opportunity. It's a company and an industry and a service that the state needs and the whole concept is exciting," said Takekawa, who has worked with Hawaii Superferry Vice Chairman John Garibaldi in the past while both were affiliated with Aloha Airlines.
Takekawa said he also is looking forward to working with Superferry President and Chief Executive Thomas Fargo, former commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.
"Neil's extensive management experience in market development and building premier customer service organizations in the transportation industry here in the islands will be complementary to Hawaii Superferry's management team," Fargo said.
The layoffs, which were mostly administrative management positions, were part of Takekawa's last duties at Roberts, he said.
"The downturn of the economy prompted the layoffs," Takekawa said. "We had to try to look at what we were doing at Roberts to make us a stronger company. It's never pleasant to have any kind of layoffs, but sometimes you have to do it."
While the state as a whole should be very concerned with where the visitor industry is going, Takekawa said that Roberts is well positioned to ride out the economic storm. Roberts Hawaii, which owns a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles, operates sightseeing tours and school bus transportation on all four major islands, as well as dinner cruise sales and the Magic of Polynesia.
"Their most visible part is tourism. However, they are very well diversified," said Takekawa, whose job at the Superferry begins tomorrow.
Prior to his short stint at Roberts Hawaii, Takekawa served as president and CEO of Island Air. He resigned from that position in April 2005 after 32 years with the company.
At Roberts, a search is on to replace Takekawa, who oversaw the company's executive management team and drove its strategy, operations and profitability. Robert Iwamoto Jr. will continue on as the Roberts' CEO.