Gary Steed explaining how water is turned into ice. Photo / Peter Jackson
Everyone who turned up at Gary and Jacqui Steed's new business in Kaitaia on Friday afternoon was welcomed with a cool beer, if they wanted one. There was no sign of top shelf, but if there had been there would not have been any shortage of ice.
The couple were
celebrating the launch of Northland Ice Ltd., an enterprise born of ice shortages in Kaitaia over the last couple of summers. There would be no possibility of a similar crisis in the future, they said.
The building in Whangatane Drive is home to all the machinery, much of it imported from Australia, needed to produce, both salted, favoured by the fishing fraternity, and the sort that they might drop into their Glenfiddich at the end of a long day out on the water, at the rate of two and a half tonnes and three tonnes respectively per day. The process includes automatic bagging, from where it is shuffled a few metres into a huge cool room that runs at minus 9 degrees Celsius.
It was very much a family affair, Gary said, with son Nico managing the plant and daughter Bridget looking after the books, but once the plant was in full production, in two or three weeks, it would likely create a few more jobs. And the final product would be sold via outlets far and wide.
