Operations manager Craig Betty at T&G's new packhouse at Whakatū, near Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Operations manager Craig Betty at T&G's new packhouse at Whakatū, near Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
The new $100 million T&G Global Limited apple packhouse will eventually rival any in the world for size.
One line of the new facility at Whakatū, near Hastings, has been operational for the last eight weeks, with installation of the second line now slowed by Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We’ve lost a little bit of volume this year because of apples being affected by floodwaters,” T&G director of operations Craig Betty said.
“There’s definitely some long-term production and volume issues, but not a lot. It was a small amount, in terms of orchards being wiped out completely.”
Instead of two to three years until the second line is put in place, T&G are potentially looking at a four-year timeframe now, Betty said.
“It now takes less labour to run the same plant, but this plant is twice as big as the old one. We were really lucky to keep all our staff, but we’re twice as fast,” said Betty.
At least most of the time.
When Hawke’s Bay Today took a tour on Tuesday, a technical glitch meant many of the 80-strong packhouse staff were twiddling their thumbs.
“There’s still a few downtime issues, as you’re seeing now, but it’s getting up to where it should be,” Betty said.
“This will see us through now for 10 years, especially with the second line going in. From a productivity point of view, this is a really effective operation.”
And one that was much-needed. International demand for T&G’s Envy apple, in particular, is so high that the company’s previous packhouse would not have coped with the volume of stock.
The Envy has been a 15-year journey for T&G, which Betty said would really bear fruit, no pun intended, in the next three to four years.
It's hard to do justice to the scale of T&G's new Whakatū packhouse. Photo / Paul Taylor
The packhouse is a state-of-the-art operation, even if traditional methods persist.
Robot packers box a portion of the apples, but other lines retain the human touch.
“Interestingly, the automation still only works half as fast as a person. Or maybe 60 per cent as fast,” said Betty.
“So we still need to have people manning [it], up until the technology catches up one day.”
The sheer scale of the packhouse provides a tangible example of how big apples are to Hawke’s Bay.
“This plant would be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and it’ll be up there, when the second line goes in, with the biggest in the world,” said Betty.
“There’s some big ones in the United States, but there will be none bigger.”
