AJ Hackett takes over Taupō Bungy operation

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

AJ Hackett Bungy's purchase of Taupō Bungy is set to take effect in late November.

The acquisition of the Taupō operation by Queenstown Bungy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bungy New Zealand Limited which trades under the name AJ Hackett Bungy, has been through a process of Commerce Commission approval.

The commission has to satisfy itself that a merger is unlikely to substantially reduce competition in a market.

Bungy New Zealand currently operates bungy jumps, swing and related businesses in Queenstown and Auckland through subsidiaries.

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While Bungy NZ co-founder and managing director Henry van Asch was not expecting immediate marked growth in business at the Taupō operation, he was hoping the overlay of some of the marketing strategies honed in Queenstown would result in increases in both domestic and overseas customers over the next year.

Tourism operators were always a little at the mercy of changes in airline destinations, routes and seating capacity, he said, but in Queenstown the business had hooked into other groups like educational tours and families as well as traditional backpackers.

He envisaged the 12 or so crew in Taupō would all stay on.

In a press release that accompanied the announcement, van Asch said the acquisition of Taupō Bungy fitted 'with the company's strategy of delivering epic tourism experiences in stunning surrounds.'

'We're delighted to have secured Taupō Bungy and we're looking forward to building on what is an already thrilling experience in a spectacular part of the world.'

The Taupō operation had been a wholly owned subsidiary of Taupō Tourism Holdings Limited. It began operation in 1991 and markets itself as New Zealand's highest water-touch bungy jump. The Cliffhanger Extreme Swing operates from the same site on Spa Road.

Van Asch said the company was committed to immersing itself in the Taupō community, just as it had done in Queenstown where it launched the world's first commercial bungy operation more than 30 years ago.

AJ Hackett Bungy wanted to work with Destination Great Lake Taupō and other local operators to further boost tourism in the region.

'We're also excited to be a part of – and contribute to – the local community.  And as part of this we'll be rolling out a series of community initiatives that we operate in our other locations – such as our JumpStart programme where all school leavers living locally have the opportunity to (bungy) jump into their future.'

The acquisition rounded out its portfolio across five other sites with a different offering to those in Auckland and Queenstown.

The operations in Queenstown and Taupō had developed a history of sharing technical and safety information, he said.

Founded in 1988, AJ Hackett Bungy today accommodates more than 150,000 customers annually across 11 bungy, catapult, swing, zipline, bridge climb, skyjump and skywalk experiences.