Business North November 2021

16 | Wannabe pilot pivots to horticulture T Richard Loader Campbell and Alix Wood formed Pivot Horticulture in 2018. Pivot Horticulture REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Proudly supporting Pivot Horticulture 0800 778 722 4 Te Puke Quarry Road, Te Puke www.rrtractors.co.nz DAVE LOYNES 027 750 2852 dave@sonicspray.co.nz HORTICULTURE SPRAY SPECIALISTS CAMBRIDGE 183 Victoria Road 07 827 7159 OTOROHANGA 1 Progress Drive 07 873 4004 ROTORUA 22 Fairy Springs Road 07 343 1915 www. gaz .co.nz Tractor & farm machinery sold & serviced across the Waikato & Bay of Plenty Sales | Parts | Service C hoosing to make the rich, fertile soils of Te Puke its home, Pivot Horticulture is a young kiwifruit orchard management company bursting with energy, passion and a drive to provide its clients with a quality service and top results. Founded by Campbell and Alix Wood in 2018, the company has experienced rapid growth. From an initial season of 16,000 bins, last season the team harvested 39,000 bins of kiwifruit. The team at Pivot Horticulture now man- ages 220 hectares encompassing 40 kiwifruit orchards between Tauranga and Otamarakau in the Western Bay of Plenty spread across an array of altitudes with a mix of convention- al and organic growing methods. Varieties include green, gold and red kiwifruit. Campbell, who has been in the horticulture industry for 15 years, says the heart and soul of the company’s success has been the selec- tion and development of people with plenty of potential, alignment with good growers, en- thusiasm across the board and a willingness to challenge the norm. Campbell is no stranger to challenging the norm. While academic, Campbell could not relate to the school system and left at the age of 16 equipped with NCEA Level 1, and a desire to become a topdressing pilot. Conditional upon leaving school was getting a job and Campbell’s father, who was involved in the kiwifruit industry, secured a job on an orchard. “I started saving for my private pilot’s license and got distracted. My employer offered me a cadet-ship to study and work at the same time, and that’s where it all happened. I decided I wanted to make a career out of hor- ticulture and over the following seasons I had numerous roles from working in packhouses to client representative to regional orchard division manager. Alix and I established Pivot Horticulture so we could work within our own set of values, how we wanted to operate as a business and be responsible for our own decisions.” From Campbell’s own beginnings in the industry, when looking for team members he decided he wanted people ‘oozing with po- tential and a passion for the industry’, to grow their knowledge and develop them through hands on orchard work and formal study. “In total we employ twenty permanent and seasonal staff,” says Campbell. “We try to maintain one manager to every 45 hectares of orchard, so we now have a management team, which includes two train- ee managers and myself. All team members brings different strengths to the business and five team members are currently going through their primary ITO horticultural ap- prenticeships.” While forging close relationships with all cli- ents is part of Pivot Horticultures ethos, some orchard owners are very hands-on, while others prefer to let Campbell and his team manage their orchards entirely. All work is undertaken under the instruc- tion, quality supervision and organisation of the orchard managers. “We offer a one-stop-shop management service which includes organising all opera- tional activities and labour on the orchards, engaging subcontractors for spraying and mowing. “We also work with trusted labour subcon- tractors who execute the infield vine work. We offer a machinery service as well for mowing, mulching and harvesting. “All our growers have different post harvest suppliers that they send their fruit to and we prefer to retain our independence and not be aligned to any one supplier. So we manage orchards for multiple different suppliers and arrange transport to those suppliers’ post harvest facilities. We also do greenfield con- version and development work for some of our growers.” From the boy who wanted to be a top-dressing pilot to passionate manager of kiwifruit orchards, Campbell says horticulture is a lifestyle choice that embodies every day — from Monday to Sunday. “With the labour shortages that we currently face there’s pressure on people involved in all primary sectors. Having passion for what we are doing is critical.” “Alix and I established Pivot Horticulture so we could work within our own set of values, how we wanted to operate as a business…”