New 'heart of ENZA' opens

With a song, a prayer and a pair of scissors, the Brian D'Ath Building - the new ENZA Hawke's Bay head office - was opened in Whakatu yesterday.

General manager international marketing Michael Hardy said the building was the new "heart of ENZA".

"It is effectively the worldwide administration headquarters for ENZA Ltd," he said.

With the ownership of parent company Turners and Growers (T&G;) changing, he said the building signalled the start of a new era after the "long, hard, arduous 10 years since the industry was deregulated".

ENZA had a long tradition of naming buildings after people who had made significant contribution to the company.

"None more so than Brian, in my mind, in his various roles as a grower, a member of our management team and a director of T&G.;"

Mr D'Ath's knowledge and experience of the industry led Tony Gibbs to invite the Hastings orchardist to join the ENZA board in 2001.

In 2003 ENZA merged with Turners & Growers Ltd, forming a company with a turnover in excess of $1 billion.

In 2008 Mr D'Ath was invited to join the management team, becoming ENZA's Global Variety Development Manager, leaving his brother John to work the family orchard in Tollemache Rd.

The 880sq m building is "the new heart" of the ENZA site, surrounded by 32,000sq m of cool stores, a pack house and 14ha of Envy apple trees.

ENZA shipped seven million boxes of fruit around the world in the last calendar year and with overseas orchards maturing that number is expected to increase to ten million.

The Brian D'Ath building houses three divisions of T&G; as well as ENZA staff.

Mr D'Ath said he was honoured the company had "conspired" to name the building after him and said the building's centralising concept was sound.

"In all of the major fruit companies that I visit around the world they all have their offices right in the middle of their operation. I think everyone can then feel what they are doing - that's really important for a business," Mr D'Ath said.