Developments

Heat exchanger helps produce carrot powder

Family-owned for four generations, Huntapac is a leading UK grower and supplier of root crops such as carrots and parsnips. Following a reorganisation of the business in 2019, the company wanted to develop new value-led product options and so installed a state-of-the-art line to produce carrot powder, with a heat exchanger from HRS Heat Exchangers forming a key part of the new process. Established near Preston in northern England by William Hunter in 1942, Huntapac initially grew a range of crops for fruit and vegetable markets in the North West, before starting to supply leading supermarkets almost fifty-years ago. The company was a major producer of root crops (carrots and parsnips), salads and brassicas (such as cauliflower and broccoli) until a few years ago, when it decided to rationalise its operations and concentrate solely on the root crops. The business grows more than 1,300 hectares of carrots and parsnips across the UK, from Suffolk to Scotland, all of which are taken to the company’s factory at Holmes near Preston for washing and packing. With the increased focus on root crops, the company was keen to add value to the five per cent of the crop which is not suitable for its packing customers and looked at a number of options before deciding on the production of carrot powder. “Five per cent may not sound like a lot, but when you are washing up to 400 tonnes of carrots a day, it soon adds up,” comments Huntapac’s Commercial Director Steven Kay. “We researched a few methods because there are lots of different drying techniques available, and we felt that the process that was right for use was to puree the carrots, put them over a drying drum and then mill the flake that results into a powder.” In early 2020 plans […]

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Trans-Tasman non-alcoholic beverage producers experience surge in downtime

Research from OFS shows a 12.5% reduction in non-alcoholic drinks production in Australia from April to June The impact of unplanned downtime has surged and accounted for 37% of production time The average producer made 5,550 units of drinks per hour, compared to a potential 10,413 Waste efficiency continued to improve, with just 1.32% of units lost between the start and end of production Manufacturing performance software company, OFS, today announced findings from its quarterly Non-Alcoholic Beverage Benchmark Report, which provides insights into how data can be used to improve production efficiency in the non-alcoholic beverages industry. The report analysed the production of millions of litres of kombucha, coconut water, dairy drinks and soft drinks by Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. producers between April and June this year to determine a view of ‘what good looks like’. It includes key performance benchmark data and explains why knowing overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) can make a significant impact on a producer’s bottom line. The data shows that non-alcoholic beverage production decreased by 12.5 per cent between April and June compared with the previous three months, as producers were thwarted by unplanned downtime. All up, filling lines spent 37 per cent of operational time in unplanned downtime, a rise of more than a third from the previous quarter, leaving producers with just over half of the possible yield achievable. “This might seem like grim reading, but demand for non-alcoholic beverages overall has shot up quite dramatically so it’s not too surprising to see teething issues in production,” said James Magee, CEO of OFS. “Really, this is an opportunity to double down on that demand and meet it in a smart, sustainable way. With this kind of data in hand, non-alcoholic producers can not only capitalise on the market opportunities, but potentially avoid totally […]

Fonterra appoints new managing director

Fonterra has appointed Emma Parsons as its Managing Director Strategy and Optimisation, effective from 1 August 2022. The newly developed role will have ownership and oversee the implementation of Fonterra’s strategy and plans to achieve Fonterra’s Long Term Aspirations. It will also bring a new level of focus on demand choices, and portfolio and asset management using analytics to inform decision making. Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell says “Emma has a strong track record of delivering results. We’ve seen this most recently in her role as GM Capital Strategy where she led the development of the new capital structure for the Co-operative, which received overwhelming support. “Emma is passionate about Fonterra and has had a long career with us, which began working at the local factory in her summer holidays and has spanned many different parts of the Co-operative.” Prior to her role as GM Capital Strategy, Emma was CEO of Agrigate, a JV between Fonterra and Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), before the GM Responsible Dairying and roles in Brazil and Argentina where she developed the Co-operative’s export relationships and supply chain integration across Latin America. Emma has an MBA with first class honours from Massey University, a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington.

Ellen Ballentine of Rainbow Park Nurseries in Drury, Auckland NZF

New Zealand’s young plant producers compete for national title

Five of the country’s most successful young plant producers are taking part in the 2022 Young Achiever competition in Christchurch from this Wednesday, vying to be named Aotearoa’s best. The competition, organised by NZ Plant Producers (NZPPI), hosted by IPPS (International Plant Propogators’ Society) and supported by the Horticentre Charitable Trust, tests competitors on the skills needed to run a successful plant production business including finance, biosecurity and health & safety. It is the chance for young plant producers from nurseries around the country to receive an invaluable boost of experience, industry insight and mentorship, plus the chance to win a $4000 fund to advance their career. The winner also gains automatic entry to the Young Horticulturalist of the Year award where they will compete against finalists from the entire horticulture sector, vying for a prize pool worth more than $20,000. Since 2016, Young Achiever winners have placed first or second in the Young Hort competition. “The Young Achiever competition showcases our industry’s most talented young plant producers. We’re proud to support the development of our industry’s future leaders and see them putting their knowledge and skills to the test,” says NZPPI People Capability Advisor Alice Schofield. “Every year the standard increases and we’re looking forward to seeing who among our five competitors takes home the winning trophy.” The Young Achiever Challenge Day is being held at Lincoln University this Wednesday (July 27th) followed by a Business Breakfast in the CBD on Thursday where the finalists will present their speeches before judges decide on then announce the winner. This is the first year Young Achiever is being held at Lincoln University. “We very much appreciate the opportunity to host at Lincoln, as it’s the perfect venue in which to encourage young people to further their career through professional development.” The […]

NZ Food Network receives Government funding to reduce business food waste

Aotearoa’s food rescue coordinator, the New Zealand Food Network (NZFN) has been awarded $440,000 in Government funding to install more chillers and freezers in its storage facilities, increasing the capacity to handle surplus and donated food. The extra storage space will allow NZFN to divert an additional 1,100 tonnes of edible food from landfill and into communities in need. The expansion is supported by The Waste Minimisation Fund, which is administered by the Ministry for the Environment. Additional support is from pre-approved Ministry of Social Development funding. Gavin Findlay, NZFN CEO, says “Vast amounts of edible chilled and frozen food products are sent to landfill every year by food organisations and producers across the country. There are lots of reasons for this, but the primary reason is that there’s no single entity that can handle these large quantities. “Many businesses are willing to donate this surplus food to communities in need but it’s simply too complex and time consuming to find homes for these products, so it’s sent to landfill.” “The New Zealand Food Network was set up to provide the food production and manufacturing industry with a solution for surplus edible food. This support from the Ministry for the Environment will provide real progress to reducing New Zealand’s commercial food waste and our overall carbon footprint. At the same time, it will improve food security by rediverting this surplus food into our vulnerable communities.” The NZFN currently supports 61 food hubs (food rescue organisations, iwi, foodbanks and charities). Through this expansion, the NZFN aims to support an additional 10-15 food hubs throughout the country. “Increasing our storage capacity will allow us to target a broader range of food items, especially within the protein sector, which is highly valued by our food hubs,” adds Findlay. Since its launch in July […]

HMPS Produces an Industry-First

The intricate merging of two processes spells significant savings and prospects for the packaging industry at-large. Proudly Australian machine builders HMPS Group (HMPS) began in 1980 and have since evolved into specialists in the Design and Manufacture of Automated Processing and Packaging Solutions. Over the years, the company has solved complex packaging challenges and their most recent success story was no exception. In a recent industry-first, HMPS designed and developed a case packer and sleever in one footprint for Real Dairy. Real Dairy is a 100% Australian owned and operated company, employing more than 250 people across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. The company produces their own speciality cheese products and supplies these to retailers across the country. How it Works Adam Read, Sales Manager at HMPS Group explains that this first-of-a-kind machine offers a small footprint, enhanced efficiencies, and long-term cost savings. “This system – the HMPS5000 – can handle pre-glued sleeves in 2, 3 and 4 cell trays at up to 180 tray/minute for the 2 cell trays. With minimal change over it can also operate as an end load cartoner erecting, loading and hotmelt sealing primary cartons.” HMPS supplied two complete units for this project, allowing Real Dairy to handle up to 360 trays/minute. “Our team developed and commissioned this machine within a 32-week period. Combining two machines into one is extremely complex but rewarding – particularly for the end-user”. Speaking to the process, he explains that products are transferred onto HMPS’s specially designed merge system from preceding processes, where two lines of product are merged into one line for loading into the HMPS 5000 sleever/ cartoner. “Generally, these tasks would be handled by two different style machines, and in this case, we had to figure out how to fit four machines into two machines.” Upon […]

Fonterra, NZX and EEX confirm GDT strategic partnership

Fonterra has confirmed the finalisation of the strategic partnership with New Zealand’s Exchange (NZX) and the European Energy Exchange (EEX) to each take ownership stakes in Global Dairy Trade (GDT) alongside the Co-op. As announced in February 2022, the partnership was subject to the approval of Boards, clearance from relevant competition law authorities, and finalisation of transaction documentation. With those approvals now received, Fonterra, NZX and EEX each hold an equal one-third (33.33%) shareholding in the global dairy auction platform GDT as of 30 June 2022. CFO Marc Rivers says the confirmation of the strategic partnership is an important milestone for Fonterra and global dairy participants. “The move to a broader ownership structure marks the next step in the evolution of GDT – giving it a presence in prominent international dairy producing regions, with greater participation expected at GDT events. “It will bring more participants and transactions, stimulating further growth of risk management contracts available on financial trading platforms. “This creates opportunities for the growth of financial tools to better manage price volatility – which is something many industry participants, from farmers through to customers, are exposed to,” says Mr Rivers. GDT Chief Executive Dr Eric Hansen said: “The GDT team is looking forward to working with EEX and NZX as strategic partners with strong interests in dairy and established reputations as regulated exchanges to enhance GDT’s role as an independent, neutral and transparent price discovery platform.” NZX Chief Executive Mark Peterson says the strategic partnership will strengthen GDT’s market reach benefiting New Zealand dairy farmers and customers. “At a time of geopolitical and macroeconomic instability, GDT’s vision to expand its global reach and provide better transparency in dairy commodity prices, is more important than ever for dairy market stakeholders,” says Mr […]

NZ’s apiculture industry honours outstanding achievements

New Zealand’s best honey producers have been named at the Apiculture New Zealand National Honey Competition as part of the industry’s annual conference in Christchurch. The conference hosted more than 750 delegates from the apiculture industry at the Te Pae Convention Centre, Christchurch on 30 June and 1 July. The National Honey Competition, held the day before the conference, featured products across a range of honey categories from creamed honey to chunky honey and cut honeycomb. The 2022 Supreme Award winner was Timaru-based Jarved Allan of The Mānuka Collective, who took away the award for the second year in a row. “There was consistently high quality across the board,” said head judge Maureen Conquer. She said the judges were impressed with the quality of honey, that is improving every year, and it was very difficult to choose the winners. The honeydew honeys, in particular, were of much higher quality this year, said Maureen Conquer. All entries were blind tasted, and an international scale of points was used to determine the winners across 12 main categories. For the first time the honey tasting was opened up to conference attendees and a People’s Choice award given. This section boasted an interesting range of flavours including thyme, pumpkin and lavender-infused honeys. Hawkes Bay beekeeper Robyn Gichard’s liquid honey proved to be the favourite in this category. The Apiculture New Zealand Conference also was an opportunity to celebrate other successes within the industry with awards presented to those making outstanding achievements in apiculture science, innovation, sustainability and photography. Dr Linda Newstrom-Lloyd (and the Trees for Bees team) was awarded the Peter Molan trophy for exceptional contribution to apiculture science for their work on strategic plantations of bee feed that will maximise bee health and survival. Canterbury-based family-owned business Heathstock Apiaries received the ApiNZ Sustainability […]

New Image acquires Nutrimetics from Tupperware Brands

New Image Group has acquired skincare and cosmetics brand Nutrimetics from Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) for an undisclosed sum. Nutrimetics is a natural fit with New Image’s portfolio of health and nutrition products says Graeme Clegg, founder and chairman of the privately owned New Image Group. “Nutrimetics is such an iconic brand with a proud 54-year history that has seen generations of women and men benefit from its incredible skincare and income opportunity. In the future, as part of New Image Group, it will be available to so many more people globally through our independent consultants.” New Image Group has two subsidiaries – New Image International, which covers the global direct selling retail sales channel, and NIG Nutritionals, which takes care of all manufacturing and packaging in New Zealand for New Image International and its other customers serving domestic and international sales channels. Rod Taylor, CEO of New Image International, says as Tupperware had decided to divest its beauty business units, he and others formerly associated with Nutrimetics saw it as an opportunity for New Image Group. “After we had completed extensive due diligence, we were delighted our offer for the whole business was accepted,” Mr Taylor says. “A recent Nutrimetics’ conference on Australia’s Gold Coast confirmed our enthusiasm is well founded. “We have plans to bring in new business systems to Nutrimetics and to increase the sales and marketing support for our independent consultants and grow revenue. ” The acquisition includes Nutrimetics Australia, Nutrimetics International New Zealand, Nutrimetics Manufacturing and Nutrimetics France.

Infor nets 7-year SaaS deal with New Zealand seafood giant Sealord

Infor CloudSuite F&B to play a crucial role in steering Kiwi success story towards gains in sustainability, cost efficiency and supply chain traceability Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that Sealord, one of the largest seafood companies in the Southern Hemisphere, has selected Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage (F&B) and Infor Supply Chain Planning (SCP) in an initial seven-year, multi-tenant SaaS agreement to enhance productivity, improve forecasting and better measure sustainability. The cloud-based platform provides day-one functionality gains as well as continuing to adapt and improve into the future. As an asset-intensive business, Sealord is also looking to incorporate a stronger and modernised asset management solution to cater to its end-to-end requirements. These include purchase and commissioning, maintenance and asset management, and tracking from both land and sea-based users. Along with reducing risk and improving efficiencies across the business, Sealord’s focus on promoting positive sustainability practices resulted in the selection of Infor CloudSuite, built specifically for their F&B industry, to establish specific carbon and other sustainability measures, such as sea temperature and plastics usage monitoring, to enable and improve reporting, management, and progress on sustainability goals. Sealord CIO Matthew Dodd said Infor was selected as it was an ideal fit as a strategic partner. “Infor has incorporated deep industry-specific features that are purpose-built within Infor CloudSuite F&B which align with Sealord’s business processes and operations. This results in a close fit solution out of the box. Ultimately, we were looking for a strategic long-term partner to work with, so not only do we value the decades of Infor development that have resulted in strong food-manufacturing capability, but we also appreciate that Infor and Sealord share similar visions for people and culture,” Dodd said. “We needed to address growing business and security risks associated with our legacy systems. Infor will […]

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Developments