Bay of Plenty businesses which lost money after the grounding of the container ship Rena will begin a class suit in the courts against the ship's owners, Costamare, next month.
About 40 businesses were represented at a meeting in Tauranga on Friday to look at their chances of recouping their losses after the Rena's grounding closed beaches and boating areas for several weeks.
Kayak and catamaran hire operator Nevan Lancaster said that his own losses were small compared with other businesses, but combined losses for the businesses reached several million dollars.
"There's definitely a core group of businesses," he said. "Some of the larger ones with easily-demonstrated losses ... there's a few businesses that are going to do all the heavy lifting, then there's the opportunity for the smaller businesses to ride on their coat-tails".
Mr Lancaster said Costamare, a Greek shipping firm which has a Swedish insurance company, is likely to settle out of court.
