Post-harvest kiwifruit operator Satara Co-operative Group is expecting an improved season after recording a loss of nearly $5 million in the last financial year ending December.
Though the trading business was profitable, Satara went through a restructuring and incurred one-off costs.
New chief executive Tom Wilson described it as "a tidy up"and "a turnaround" year.
He said Satara had become staid and cumbersome, it had been losing growers/suppliers over the last three to four years, and its operations needed to be re-engineered.
Mr Wilson made savings of $1.4 million, half of it through redundancies, and reduced debt from $14.8 million to $7.7 million. Four of the five production sites now have new managers.
Satara sold its Totara St Coolstore and 2 hectare site for $8.6 million but recorded a $2.23 million loss after the property had a value of $10.83 million.
The co-operative spent $488,000 on the unsuccessful merger with EastPack and there were loan charges of $1.05 million, restructuring costs of $163,000 and tax adjustments (following changes in the law) of $974,000, producing total losses of $4.91 million.
Satara last season handled 23 per cent less kiwifruit and its net trading profit was $106,000, compared with $932,000 the previous year.
Operating revenue was $43.68 million, down from $56.56 million in 2009, and Satara handled 8.5 million Class 1 trays, including 2.5 million trays from its own orchards. The co-operative also sent 1.2 million trays of Class 2 kiwifruit to Australia.
With the new harvest of a bumper crop just over a week away, Mr Wilson said the company is ready to hit the ground running. "We are focussed on what is best for the growers, and introduced more efficient handling processes through the packhouses and coolstores."
He said Satara has improved its fruit loss management system and staff are conditioned for "pack it once, pack it right."
The co-operative has also opened up direct communication between growers and all staff, and suppliers are returning to the fold.
Satara, which has a 10 per cent share of the post-harvest kiwifruit market, expects to pack an extra 1.1 million trays this season, totalling 9.6 million trays, Mr Wilson said.
