Business Central July 2021

| 25 Blast freezer investment drives growth T Richard Loader Manawatu Cold Storage now has seven freezer rooms with a total of 12,000-pallet capacity, depending on what product is being stored at any given time. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Manawatu - CEDA: Manawatu Cold Storage W hen Manawatu Cold Storage’s new owners asked their General Manager, Brent Cawthray, what he would do to grow the business, he suggested upgrading the technology to blast freezing, never thinking they would take the idea up. Yet by September 2019 a major plant up- grade had been completed which included the development of three new blast freezers, each with 33MT capacity, along with a new 800sqm freezer. As a result of the upgrades, Manawatu Cold Storage has seen considerable growth in its business, attracting companies like Alliance and Tegel and ongoing interest from others. “There is massive demand for blast freezer capacity,” says Brent. “This was the best decision we could have made. We export a lot of meat but it has to reach frozen temperature within a specific period of time and we can now do that within 30 hours of it arriving on site.” The upgrade also included conversion to the more environmentally friendly ammonia gas for the blast freezers, the new freezer room and two other larger freezer rooms, while four smaller freezer rooms were switched to 449a refrigerant, a high performance environmen- tally sustainable refrigerant. In total, Manawatu Cold Storage now has seven freezer rooms with a total of 12,000-pallet capacity, depending on what product is being stored at any given time. Located on the outskirts of Feilding, Mana- watu Cold Storage is centrally located in the heart a deeply agricultural region, receiving and dispatching product throughout the Manawatu and beyond. “Our products are primarily dairy — butter and cheese — lamb, beef, imported pork and more latterly chicken from Tegel. Our key suppliers are Fonterra, ANZCO, Tegel, Alliance, Premier Beehive and Rangitikei Meat Distrib- utors. “The butter comes in frozen and we send it out chilled for further distribution. Most of the lamb goes to export markets all around the world. The beef comes in, gets blast frozen and then exported. We get a lot of import- ed pork from overseas, which gets sent to Premier Beehive for further processing. And we distribute for Rangitikei Meat Distributors, mostly around the Central Districts.” Manawatu Cold Storage’s roots go back to 45 years when Larry Evans started it as Eljay’s Icebox. The business quickly grew from one small storage room to six on the back of expansion driven by the Dairy Board. Larry’s sons took the business over in the early ‘90s and later sold to the current over- seas owner in 2015, who appointed Brent to the role of General Manager, recognising the job he had been doing for the last few years. Brent has been part of Manawatu Cold Storage’s journey since 1989 when he was offered four days casual work after exiting the Police Force. “I started as a storeman never having driven a forklift before. I did quite a bit of damage actually. I got made foreman and eventually took over management of the plant.” Complimenting his team on their industry experience that make the difference in the business’s operation, Brent says building good relationships with the customers and deliver- ing the service they want is also key. “We export a lot of meat but it has to reach frozen temperature within a specific period of time and we can now do that within 30 hours of it arriving on site.” Basis are proud to support Manawatu Cold Storage Ltd since 1986 with the Basis Warehouse Management System. Manawatu Cold Storage Ltd are trusted to look after High Value, Export and Domestic Primary Produce for their clients, and choose Basis to provide the tools for Accurate, Efficient, reliable Inventory Management · Full Featured Inventory Management System · Product Track and Trace · Individual Item Barcode Scanning · Product State / Product Status / Item History Management · Fully Integrated to NZ Ministry of Primary Industries AP-ECERT (Animal Products Certification System) · Integrated Accounting Functionality Unit 8, 96 Grey Street, Palmerston North 4414 06 356 9936 | info@basis.co.nz | www.basis.co.nz Ben Kemp: 027 452 6776 | www.kempelectrical.co.nz