24 | GEK Property - Britkin Construction Proud to support GEK Property - Britkin Industrial Construction REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT New apple coolstore meets demand A controlled atmosphere space is sealed and pressurized with nitrogen introduced to the atmosphere and the percentage of oxygen brought down to between 1% and 2%. T T from page 22 “It’s all about creating a delayed packing programme by bringing the fruit out of storage a whole lot fresher than it would be otherwise.” “Refrigeration has quite a technical component: how you handle the fruit, how you cool it and so on. That means having the right gear spec’d for what you’re wanting to achieve so we’ve worked with our technical suppliers and built up our experience over 15 years which means that we can achieve these turnkey projects.” Being operational for the apple harvest was the key for both the coolstores on the Hastings site, so achieving the Rockit opening a month early means all three parties, Britkin, GEK and Rockit Global were happy. It’s a testament to Britkin Construction’s depth of experience with these sorts of projects, and their capacity to innovate when it was needed to meet the high specifications that come with the Rockit apple, including 50% of the volume of the coolstore being Controlled Atmosphere (CA), and 50% Refrigerated Atmosphere — a much higher percentage of CA than coolstores would typically have. A controlled atmosphere space is sealed and pressurized with nitrogen introduced to the atmosphere and the percentage of oxygen brought down to between 1% and 2%. The apples are essentially put into a coma, slowing down the ageing process, and prolonging the life of the apple, an essential part of Rockit Global’s operations, Richard explains. “Whereas most of the apple exporters in New Zealand harvest the fruit, put it away (in RA) and ship it off within a three to five month period, Rockit Global want to supply the fruit for the whole year,” says Ricahrd. “So a lot higher percentage of their crop requires CA to give them the ability to ‘just-intime’ pack over the entire 12 month period. “It’s all about creating a delayed packing programme by bringing the fruit out of storage a whole lot fresher than it would be otherwise.” Working with their relatively small team Britkin Construction pride themselves on their efficiency and being able to deliver a viable option for tenants and owners alike and being more than just a construction company. With their experience they provide additional advice and/or additional design as they get involved with making sure they understand what the end-user requires. Armed with that information they work out the details with their suppliers and technical people to make sure that it’s achievable before they begin. “It’s not just a big fridge that you put the apples in and good luck,” says Richard. “Different apples need different treatment, so they need to be handled almost variety by variety in the way that they’re cooled and stored.” The Rockit Coolstore has a capacity of 42,000 bins of apples which is the equivalent of close to 19,000,000 kilos of fruit to be safely stored in the 9000sqm purpose-built coolstore designed for the easy and efficient delivery of what amounts to just over half the annual volume of the Rockit harvest. Delivering projects on time is the key to storing perishable items, with millions of dollars at stake, and once again Britkin Construction proved they can be relied on to do exactly that.
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