Business North November 2021

| 11 Exponential growth for family business T Richard Loader Te Puke-based Trevelyan’s Pack N Cool packed 18.2 million trays of kiwifruit and approximately one million trays of avocados last year. “We now have five packhouses — four for export and one for the local market — along with coolstores on site with about 90 different rooms.” T to page 12 Trevelyan’s Pack N Cool REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT keeping kiwis cool since 1997 PROUD TO SUPPORT TREVELYAN'S PACK & COOL I n 1965 John and Elizabeth Trevelyan bought a 10-acre block at 310, No.1 Road, Te Puke. It was a dairy farm at the time, but six years later they began converting the property and planted their first kiwifruit vines. The couple and their four children — An- drew, James, Fiona and Kate — worked hard to pack their first crop of 186 kiwifruit trays by themselves, only for the Ministry of Agricul- ture and Fisheries to later reject it because of scale. This humbling experience prompted the family to build its first packhouse in 1976, and so Trevelyan’s began. Business quickly flourished and the decision to expand into cool storage was made in 1983. That set Trevelyan’s on a path that has led to it becoming the region’s most innovative packhouse and cool storage provider. While the Trevelyan family no longer grows any fruit on this site, the original 4.5ha block has grown to 30 hectares as neighbouring blocks were purchased and the original post harvest facilities expanding considerably over the years, packing and cool-storing both kiwi- fruit and avocado. Managing Director James Trevelyan says his father used to say that once they got to 1000 trays he could have bacon and eggs for breakfast on Sundays. Last year Trevelyan’s packed 18.2 million trays of kiwifruit and approximately one million trays of avocados, representing 10% of the national crop of kiwifruit and about the same for avocado. “We now have five packhouses — four for export and one for the local market — along with coolstores on site with about 90 different rooms. “The bulk of our kiwifruit comes from the Te Puke region but we also truck from Tau- marunui, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Katikati. Avocados come from Coromandel, Katikati, Te Puke, Opotiki and some from Hawke’s Bay as well.