Business Rural Summer 2021

| 7 RURAL PEOPLE » Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables part of the Oakley family legacy Robin Oakley (founder and managing director, fifth-generation); April Oakley (marketing, sixth-generation) and Graeme Oakley (mentor, fourth-generation). It usually requires a grower to go out of business and create a longer term shortage before there is a price adjustment. Oakleys are constantly looking for new technol- ogy and try to innovate to reduce the labour requirement in their business. Due to the nature of a lot of the work requirements there are not many solutions world wide. And the lack of reliable staff has the double negative of impacting on the good teams working on the ground. “There are limits as to how much extra work these already hard-working people can do. Our care of staff is always our first priority.” “Sometimes I advertise and get responses and then no- one bothers to turn up for an interview. Or I take them on and they’re gone by lunch-time.” THE TRACTOR CENTRE THE TRACTOR CENTRE TH TRACTOR CTEHNETTRREACTOR CENTRE Checchi Magli The biggest fear Robin has is that COVID will soon be in the South Island, and within less than a week of talking with him, news was released on Saturday 23 October, that the first South Island case had been detected in Blenheim, from a per- son who became sick having flown from Rotorua.