New chairman for EastPack

New EastPack chairman John Loughlin at the Te Puke plant. Photo/Andrew Warner

On Tuesday the EastPack board of directors unanimously appointed a new chairman, John Loughlin.

Mr Loughlin joined EastPack as an independent director in 2014 and held the position of interim chief executive between January and May 2015 leading up to the appointment of current chief executive, Hamish Simson.

Mr Loughlin is a professional director with extensive leadership experience in the kiwifruit industry and other primary sectors.

He is a former chairman of Zespri International Ltd and currently holds directorships with several companies including PowerCo Limited and the Port of Napier.

Mr Loughlin said he was committed to ensuring EastPack played an active role in the success of the kiwifruit industry going forward.

"The industry is experiencing significant growth and there seems to be widespread confidence, from growers through to the markets. It's important that, as an industry, we are able to capitalise on every opportunity to deliver value to growers. The Board and I are certainly keen to ensure EastPack plays a key role here".

This season EastPack processed about 33 million class one trays of kiwifruit, up 34 per cent on last year, including over 9.6 million trays of gold variety fruit.

EastPack expected a further increase in supply volume in 2016 and Mr Loughlin said the company was well positioned to manage increased volume.

"EastPack have recently invested heavily in infrastructure to address expected volume increases. We intend to continue this trend to deliver a truly world class service for growers".

EastPack chief executive Hamish Simson said he was looking forward to working closely with Mr Loughlin in the future.

"John's skills and experience will be hugely valuable for EastPack as we progress though exciting challenges over coming years.

"As Interim CEO, John established strong relationships with the EastPack team and I'm confident he has a firm handle on opportunities for the business going forward".