56 | MANUFACTURING Wyma Solutions Wellbeing at the core of new products Kelly Deeks Wyma Solutions continues to improve the vegetable industry with a strong focus on customer outcomes and quality. Wellbeing is driving innovation for Canterbury agritech exporter Wyma Solutions, as the designer, manufacturer, and installer of post-harvest equipment for packhouses seeks to develop solutions that are better for the planet, and for the people working with them. Wyma Solutions has a well-established history of packhouse problem solving, dating back to the 1960s when it was Linton Engineering, based in West Melton and designing and building small graders and harvesters for the local potato industry. Purchased by John Wyma in 1991, John invented the Vege-Polisher which was a turning point for the root vegetable industry, and very well received in New Zealand and Australia. When Andrew Barclay bought the business in 2001, he got stuck into developing and redeveloping solutions for the European market. “We found some differences with European packing sheds,” Andrew says. “They are a lot larger than New Zealand packing sheds and they operate for longer hours. Overcoming that with our existing products was a big part of our development at the start. Then once you have one product, you need other products to support it, so over time we have started to provide complete packing shed solutions.” Andrew has grown Wyma Solutions from 15 staff to 170, 50 of whom are working in Europe both in sales and support, and in Wyma Solutions’ manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic. This Slavic site is set to snowball as the increasing cost and unpredictable nature of the freight industry starts to make buying from New Zealand a bit less price competitive for European customers. There are also changes afoot for Wyma Solutions’ principal manufacturing facility in Canterbury, as a new premises is now being built a couple of kilometres down the road at Waterloo Business Park. Andrew says Wyma Solutions has outgrown its current building, and he and the staff are looking forward to moving to a more user-friendly workplace around the end of the year. Always known for taking its customers’ problems and solving them, Wyma Solutions continues to improve the vegetable industry with a strong focus on customer outcomes and quality. Andrew says Wyma Solutions customers, both today’s and tomorrow’s, are looking for “environmentally friendly, people friendly packhouse solutions”. “The environment and people’s wellbeing will be the drivers of innovation in our space, and we want to be part of it,” he says. “We now have our first test underway of water treatment technology that can clarify water in a few seconds and make it safe to discharge or use again. “Most of our customers are saying if we can make this work, then they want one yesterday.” In the packhouse environment, automation Expertise - Passion - Automation We have moved! We are investing in the future! Announcing our new premises! Now ZLWK more space and better facilities to service our valued customers! Visit our new premises: Unit 1, 38 Dakota Crescent, Wigram, Christchurch. NZSales@smcanz.com 0800 132 0762 A tool for every job! Big or Small Industrial, Contracting and Trade Safety, PPE and Tools Custom Made Brushes www. nzb rush . co . nz Over 3000 industrial and commercial cleaning products 0800 692 787 · sales@nzbrush.co.nz Cleaning and Hygiene General Brushware is the key to improving the wellbeing of the people working there. “Packing sheds are dark and cold, and they need to be to keep the veges in good shape, but it’s not the most pleasant environment to work in. “We are now seeing a big shift with some of our customers, where the type of capital expenditure they make on products like ours is not just a commercial decision. Yes it has to stack up, but there are also intangible benefits they want to achieve. “They want to keep their staff safe, happy, motivated, and engaged. This longer-term thinking will continue to be a big driver of invention of packhouse equipment, and we are on board with that.” “We are now seeing a big shift with some of our customers, where the type of capital expenditure they make on products like ours is not just a commercial decision.”
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