14 | Hawke’s Bay: ZIWI T T Richard Loader New premises back up and running ZIWI is New Zealand’s largest exporter of pet food. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Tui was a multi level commercial project including: • Energy e icient heat pumps • Rainwater harvesting • Extensive civil drainage • Environmental Challenges This project started in July 2022 post what had been a wet winter. This posed a challenge to the team for a site that is close to the sea and already had a high water table. Our starting challenge was to install drainage out to swale with our trench line crossing live power and gas lines. Due to the swale holding water signi icant bunding was required to ensure no environmental breach. With gas and electrical lines being live, a lot of coordination was required with the di erent utility providers to provide stand-over, suction truck company to get everyone on site on the same day, all with the hope that weather was kind to us on the day. While installing diversion stormwater from the factory to the swale the team had to ensure that su icient bunding was installed while our works were in progress. The project has some environmental initiatives designed into it. • A separate stormwater storage tank was set up near the o ice building to use the stormwater collected from an area of roof. This rainwater was also used for irrigation for the site. • Additionally a large scale water harvesting component was added to the project half way through. This involved setting up tanks to harvest rainwater from the existing Ziwi factory and the under construction Tui site. These tanks will hold 320,000 ltrs of water. This will add to the 125,000 ltrs on stage 1 to make a total capacity of 445,000 ltrs • Installing these features means the harvested water can be used in processing at the factory or for irrigation, thereby not putting a strain on the bore water or town supply. Water Filters and Softeners These were installed by the engineers with our assistance. Heat Pump Energy saving EcoPlus HotWater Heat Pump System was installed for hot water supply to the o ice building. Provided energy e icient hot water that harnesses the heat from the outside air to heat water and is absorbed by a natural refrigerant, R744 (CO2), which is ozone friendly and has a very low global warming potential – saving energy, saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Excellence through expert knowledge: Advanced Plumbing 0508 22 88 99 www.advancedplumbing.co.nz info@advancedplumbing.co.nz PO Box 126, Hastings, 4122 advanced It’s been a tough year for ultra-premium New Zealand pet food manufacturer ZIWI. In February its brand-new 12,500sqm $85 million kitchen in Awatoto Hawke’s Bay was extensively damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle floodwaters, and production came to a halt. Luckily, ZIWI was able to ramp up production at its Christchurch plant, but wasn’t able to fully cover Awatoto being offline. A massive five month clean-up operation followed, and in late July the kitchen was again in full production. ZIWI has retained all staff since the cyclone, with ZIWI CEO Stuart Irvine saying: “We’re pleased to say that post-cyclone we’ve kept our entire team on. They have been amazing throughout. Some were involved in the clean-up, others have been redeployed to other parts of the business.” ZIWI’s office team are still based in temporary space in Napier and Hastings, and expect to join the manufacturing team at Awatoto in early 2024, capping off 12 months of tremendous highs and lows. The company’s move to Hawke’s Bay in 2022 is key to ZIWI fulfilling its global growth ambitions. ZIWI had long outgrown its original premises in Bay of Plenty, where it was spread over three locations. It needed a new site, with good transport connections, where it could grow. The search brought it to Hawke’s Bay, and a fantastic green fields location at Awatoto, enabling it to double the production capacity of Tauranga. Quality New Zealand ingredients are a huge part of the ZIWI story and brand, which is grounded in peak nutrition and ethical food production. ZIWI pioneered air-dried technology 20 years ago and continues to innovate producing a range of wet (canned), air dried, and freeze dried foods for cats and dogs. The product development team includes food technologists and food scientists, with deep knowledge of the nutritional needs of cats and dogs. This knowledge helps ZIWI to develop products closely linked to what an animal would eat in the wild. ZIWI’s most recent innovation, freeze-dried boosters, was developed in response to pet parents increased awareness of pet health, and are a super tasty nutrient-dense topper that supports pet health, offering a daily boost of superfoods for proactive health and wellness. Launched earlier this year under the ZIWI Peak brand, the freeze-dried raw super boost series was named in the TOP 10 Innovation Products at The One Pet Show 2023, a high profile trade show for the pet industry in China, that this year featured nearly 800 brand exhibitors, and attracted almost 48,000 trade and more than 132,000 consumer visitors. With products sold in 35 international markets, ZIWI is New Zealand’s largest exporter of pet food, as well as supplying pet stores domestically. The outlook for the company is promising, says Stuart, with key global trends of growth in pet numbers and premiumisation of pet food underpinning ZIWI’s expansion plans. “That’s why we can confidently invest in new plant that doubles our production capacity, and in our new facility that’s due to open next year.” In addition to the Awatoto kitchen, ZIWI’s new canning facility, also at Awatoto, is a $40 million investment, currently under construction by builders Watts & Hughes, and project engineers, APEX. “It will add 8600sqm of new production capacity to ZIWI’s Hawke’s Bay operations, especially in wet food production, and allows ZIWI total control over quality, greater responsiveness to market trends, and greater flexibility,” says Stuart. ZIWI is already a significant employer in Hawke’s Bay, with some 370 people working for the company in either Awatoto, or Freeze Dried Foods in Hastings, a company that ZIWI purchased for its freeze drying capabilities. Once operational the canning plant will create a further 50 jobs. There is a huge range of Hawke’s Bay roles, spanning manufacturing, production planning, engineering and maintenance, research and development, health and safety, and human resources. With the ZIWI kitchen fully operational and the new canning facility set to produce from 2024, ZIWI will start to see its $120 million investment in its Hawke’s Bay facilities and commitment to the region, begin to bear fruit. Stuart says that Hawke’s Bay is an integral part of ZIWI’s future success story. “ZIWI is all about product quality and integrity, and manufacturing in New Zealand is how we believe we can ensure that. Growing our manufacturing excellence will enable us to capture every growth opportunity, and we see our Awatoto facilities playing a major part in supporting our growth plans.”
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