48 | Positive outlook With a strong focus on organics, the family owned and operated business currently supplies 30% of Zespri organic green. Whitehall Fruitpackers T T Kim Newth REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Whitehall Fruitpackers is unique in the Waikato, being the region’s only large-scale kiwifruit grower, harvester and packer running a fully integrated coolstore and packhouse operation. With a strong focus on organics, the family owned and operated business currently supplies 30% of Zespri organic green. Mark and Robyn Gardiner, who packed their first harvest in 1985, today share the running of the business with their children. Their son Ben has stepped up as general manager, while his younger brother Paul is the chief finance officer and their sister Kristin heads shipping and inventory management. The couple’s son-in-law, James, runs their honey operation (Hartford Honey) that supports pollination. “We feel very fortunate and blessed to have children who want to work in the business and share our pride in seeing our growth in the better years.” This year is certainly stacking up as one of those better years. Mark observes that Zespri is also becoming a formidable brand in the global marketplace. “We had a good growing season, producing a good sized crop. On the sales side, Zespri does a phenomenal job of market optimization. As a brand, it is recognised as representing good quality that can be relied upon. People enjoy working with Zespri. It’s a well-administered business with good transparency.” Mark and Robyn started out as sheep farmers, but began planting kiwifruit vines in the 1970s to hedge their bets at a time when growers were just starting to realise the rising potential of kiwifruit. By 1984, the couple had built their first packhouse. As Whitehall Fruitpackers continued to expand, they built their first cool-store in 1988. A year later, they had sold their sheep farm with the sole focus then switching to kiwifruit. Whitehall Fruitpackers has come a long way since Mark planted his first kiwifruit vine in 1975 in the original Whitehall block. Today, the company has over 300 canopy hectares of kiwifruit spread across five main growing areas and produces around 3.5 million first class trays through their Karapiro packhouse. While other Waikato kiwifruit operators have fallen by the wayside over the years, Whitehall Fruitpackers has continued to flourish. Their longevity in the industry owes much to a proactive mindset on innovation. “Technology is changing all the time – you have got to be prepared to gear up and install new things. For us, having an integrated coolstore and packhouse on one site was a game changer and we did that fairly early. You also have to get that volume and have that commitment to the future.” A recent milestone for the company came in 2022 with the commissioning of automation and robotics into their packhouse operation. Mark says getting the new machinery and processes to mesh in that first year was difficult, but everything is now running well. “We’re getting more production while having reduced our reliance on casual seasonal staff. Instead, we have a much more consistent, stable and skilled team.” While the company’s Karapiro packhouse is used predominantly for their own Green and Gold crops, the facility also selectively packs for other growers, including red kiwifruit growers. Interestingly, Mark and Robyn have recently come full circle back to farming. In 2017, they purchased the sheep and beef farm where Mark grew up and have since added a couple of dairy farms. “We started to think about diversification and these were good opportunities for us.” Whitehall Fruitpackers ojifs.com Proudly supplying quality corrugated packaging to Packaging Central | +64 6 367 6800 | casectrl@ojifs.com
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