| 29 North Port Coolstores T T Hugh de Lacy Kiwifruit, dairy drive coolstore growth While the dairy component of North Port Coolstores business is steady, kiwifruit is still in a rapid growth phase. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT What began as a group of 18 kiwifruit growers and post-harvest operators attempting nearly 40 years ago to establish their own coolstore at Port Whangarei has settled into a business neatly tuned to the requirements of both the regional kiwifruit and dairy industries. North Port Coolstores in 1987 sealed a deal with the then Northland Harbour Board to lease land on which to build a 1000-pallet kiwifruit coolstore to facilitate kiwifruit shipments through the port. Within a year it became apparent that one store wasn’t enough, so a second the same size was built. The Northland Port Corporation, which succeeded the harbour board, in 1989 then approached North Port Coolstores for a 50/50 joint venture that would make it a shareholder rather than a landlord, and this was agreed to. About the same time the New Zealand Dairy Board, now Fonterra, which owned an adjacent coldstore – where product is frozen below 0oC as compared with coolstores which go down to 0oC - tapped North Port Coolstores for overflow storage space for butter. The subsequent two-year lease saw the second coolstore built with extra capacity for storing frozen butter in the kiwifruit off-season. Next to come aboard, in 1991, was meat processor AFFCO which wanted storage for frozen meats bound for the North American market on conventional reefer ships. At the same time North Port Coolstores agreed to take over the management of the New Zealand Dairy Board’s butter coldstore, an arrangement that has been in force ever since. With both the kiwifruit and dairying industries expanding rapidly at the time, the subsequent loss of the meat trade, when Silver Fern Farms acquired Richmond Meats, did little to dent the performance of the coolstore company. And there were other embryonic industries taking advantage of Northland’s mild growing conditions, principal among them being avocado growing, along with a cluster of smaller users like smallgoods and fish-bait businesses. Eventually the New Zealand Dairy Board sold its butter coldstore to North Port Coolstores, putting the whole business into the hands of the original kiwifruit growers. Today the company’s coolstores are consistently full – “We really don’t have space for anything else at the moment,” the company’s founding chairman, and general manager since 1988, Bruce Mulligan says. “We’re fortunate to have those two big clients, kiwifruit and butter.” But cool storage throughout the country has lately had to battle against the twin forces of rapidly rising electricity and labour costs, and Bruce reckons some of the primary industries that the coolstores service don’t realise the pressure they’re under. “Some of them don’t really value coolstores the way they should,” Bruce says. “We provide an essential service for them, and a lot of them just focus on getting it as cheaply as possible, and over the past few years we’ve struggled to get a reasonable return for the service we provide. “A big industrial ammonia coolstore like ours takes a lot of refrigeration plant and building maintenance – keeping up a fleet of forklifts, and things like that.” While the dairy component of North Port Coolstores business is steady, kiwifruit is still in a rapid growth phase, with new acres of the gold variety being planted, and older green variety vines being replaced by gold with its significantly higher production of bigger and heavier fruit. “We’re fortunate to have those two big clients, kiwifruit and butter.” Thanks for 20 years of looking after our cold storage in Whangarei & for the great service you have provided - All the Best from Salty Dog Address: 21 KING STREET HIKURANGI Email: sales@nzpilchards.co.nz Business Advisors & Chartered Accountants Proudly Supporting Northport Coolstores www.yhpj.co.nz (09) 470 0400 NOW OFFERING Commercial Property Management Services!
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