Trade Me rival Wheedle will relaunch "within weeks" with a redesigned and better website, says managing director Carl Rees.  

The Christchurch-based online trading platform, bankrolled by Mainfreight co-founder Neil Graham, closed in October just days after its fanfare launch, because of software problems. One allowed people to change the reserve price of other members' auctions.

However, Rees said Wheedle was never hacked and had now been "thoroughly checked". He was confident traders would give it a second chance. 

"We have put a lot of things in place that will ease people's minds. Security is extremely tight now.

"The genuine people out there can appreciate you don't always get things right first time. It is not like Novopay where they have just carried on."

He would not comment on how much had been spent on Wheedle, but it is understood the investment ran to millions of dollars even before the revamp.

Wheedle had taken the opportunity provided by the downtime to change the look and feel of the site and add some extra features, he said. A television advertising campaign would accompany its relaunch.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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