Pioneering vision yields industry success

Today's highly sophisticated and successful kiwifruit industry has evolved from hundreds of small packsheds run by pioneering orchardists throughout the country's growing regions to become one of New Zealand's biggest export earners.
Among those with a vision of what the industry may become was a group of 23 Edgecumbe-based growers who joined forces to form Rangitaiki Fruit Packers in 1983 to pack and coolstore their fruit. In the industry's early years, nearly every kiwifruit orchard had its own packshed but they were coming under pressure from growing fruit volumes, higher quality standards and the costs of new technology including that needed to label fruit.
To answer those issues, Rangitaiki Fruit Packers (RFP) joined the ranks of grower-owned co-operatives and private companies - establishing larger packing and coolstore facilities throughout the main growing regions. In its first season, RFP packed 60,000 trays of green kiwifruit for shareholders and for the next 10 years continued to grow both fruit volumes and its facility in Edgecumbe.
In 1997, RFP purchased the Opotiki co-operative, increasing its suppliers and customers to pack about three million trays that year.
The following year the co-op changed its name to EastPack. In 2000 it bought Zest Company in Te Puke and went on to invest more than $40 million in developing a purpose-built packhouse and coolstorage facility on a 9ha industrial site in Quarry Rd, Te Puke.
EastPack CEO Tony Hawken, who has been with EastPack since its inception as RFP, remains impressed with the vision of the original shareholders who laid the foundations for what was to become one of the kiwifruit industry's biggest players.
"This season EastPack packed 17 million trays and, at 6.1 million trays of gold, is the industry's largest supplier of gold to Zespri with a 30 per cent share of the industry total," he said.
The 17 million (10.9 million of green) is packed between the co-op's three facilities with the largest volume, nine million trays, packed at Te Puke.
Despite its significant growth, Tony said EastPack had remained true to its original co-operative principles.
"We are a hybrid co-op in that only growers and staff can hold shares and our focus is to maximise grower returns. We have a flat management structure which means growers can talk to the people who make the decisions."
In the past five years EastPack has made significant investment in plant and equipment, including the introduction of robots for strapping pallets and automatic tray-filling at Te Puke. The Edgecumbe facility has also expanded, with land being bought from the adjoining Fonterra Dairy Factory.
The co-ops, both representatives of two of this country's most successful primary industries, stand side by side in Eastbank Rd, Egdecumbe, and both have weathered volatile markets, adverse weather events and the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake.
EastPack operations manager Nigel Martin said more recently the two had even more in common.
"EastPack has introduced 'lean manufacturing' principles to our sites and we've learnt a lot by talking to management at the Fonterra Edgecumbe site, which has been operating under lean manufacturing for 13 years." Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy aimed at reducing waste in all aspects of operations.
The company employs 1500 people during the peak of the kiwifruit season, many from the wider Bay of Plenty community.