| 15 Gisborne: Cedenco REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Steady growth despite challenges Karen Phelps It’s been a challenging year for Cedenco with Omicron and weather events impacting the company’s operations. But Mark Springer, Cedenco general manager of operations, says its people have made the difference. “We are fortunate to have many staff who went above and beyond to keep operations going during higher Omicron case months and keep raw material moving through the factory for our local growers. We are really proud of the way the team stepped up.” Weather events late 2021 and early 2022 have placed additional stress at times interrupting the usual flow of product to the factory resulting in large influxes of material. Overall volume has also been affected with paddocks washed away at Tolaga Bay. But despite the challenges Cedenco’s business continues to grow with strong forecasted demand. Investment is being made into the operation to increase capacity and throughput by shortening the season to maximise the yield from crops by harvesting product when it’s at its premium. This will see Cedenco build capacity into its squash line and it will be introducing a second in-feed, running a new machine cut operation alongside its traditional hand cut operation. “We will not be reducing our labour but means we can run the machine cut operation 24 hours to increase capacity,” explains Mark. Last year investment was made into the powders factory and Mark says investment will continue this year to further increase uptime and refine the improvements already made. Cedenco has also invested heavily in a trade waste filtration system as part of its commitment to reduce environmental impact. Cedenco was formed in 1985 with its tomato paste and puree factory commissioned in 1986. Tomato paste production grew to 14,000 tonnes within 10 years and Cedenco later expanded into bulk diced tomatoes, apple and kiwifruit paste, kiwifruit and sweet corn and pumpkin powder with its drum dried powder plant. In 2001 Cedenco expanded into frozen vegetable processing with the purchase of freezing equipment for the production of frozen peas, corn and pumpkin. to page 16 “We are fortunate to have many staff who went above and beyond to keep operations going during higher Omicron case months and keep raw material moving through the factory for our local growers.” We cover it all from Structural Engineering, Industrial mechanical and stainless to everyday engineering services Locally owned and operated 06 867 9266 | alan@supeng.co.nz supremeengineering.co.nz
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