68 | FORESTRY Taylor Corp More than just industry acknowledgment Robotic stacker: Taylor Corp has emerged triumphant, securing two finalist positions in the Best Established Business and Excellence in Innovation categories, winning the latter, at the ExportNZ ASB Hawke’s Bay Export Awards 2024. T T Karen Phelps A year after Cyclone Gabrielle filled its state-of-the-art packhouse with 23 million litres of mud and silt, Hawke’s Bay apple producer Taylor Corp has emerged triumphant, securing two finalist positions in the Best Established Business and Excellence in Innovation categories, winning the latter, at the ExportNZ ASB Hawke’s Bay Export Awards 2024. Cameron Taylor, packhouse and exports manager of the fourth-generation family business, says the devastating scene that greeted him after Cyclone Gabrielle would have broken many, but the Taylor family’s century-old resilience proved stronger than nature’s fury. “The mud was over my gumboot just below the knees and water up to my nose and I’m 1.8m tall,” says Cameron. “We were most worried about our staff. We accommodate 190 staff so I flew in to rescue our staff who were at our accommodation block two kilometres away. People were on stop banks, hills and roofs.” When the cyclone hit in February 2023, the company had completed just three days of packing for the season. Rather than focus immediately on their business losses, the Taylors turned their attention to their community. They deployed the company helicopter for rescue operations and supply drops to stranded residents. The damage was catastrophic, with 70% of the apple crop rendered unharvested and their RSE worker accommodation destroyed. However, the family’s innovative spirit, which had just invested in one of the world’s most advanced apple packhouses, refused to be dampened.
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