46 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Tasman: Cloudy Bay Vineyards - Apollo Projects T T Richard Loader New facility reduces bottlenecks When Nikolai St George was appointed Cloudy Bay’s Director of Winemaking four and half years ago, he was tasked with increasing the efficiencies at the winery, and also decreasing risk resulting from climate change. “We looked at options and one of the main things was being able to bring our fruit in faster by removing bottlenecks. We also wanted to make better use of our existing receivables infrastructure during times of high need, such as when a weather event is coming, or if there is a lot of fruit ready at the same time which it often is.” T T to page 48 The solution was the development of a new state-of-the-art fruit receivables facility with greater capacity and designed for efficiency along with strong health and safety considerations. “My role in the project was to identify the best location for the new building, and use my extensive experience in the wine industry to consider the best design for a receivables facility that was efficient while not compromising Cloudy Bay’s high-quality standards. We also wanted to decrease the labour efforts required to process a significant amount of receivable fruit. Marlborough has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, and it can be very hard to get good labour.” Kotahi Engineering Studio, recognised as a premier engineer in New Zealand’s wine industry, was engaged to work closely with Nikolai in the design of the new receivables facility. “I had consulted with others in our winery, and experts from the wider wine industry to help me make final decisions regarding press type and how the fruit would be received,” says Nikolai. “I drew a concept of how I thought the facility would look and Kotahi Engineering Studio refined that concept to make it a practical reality. Aspects such as keeping the facility operating if some machinery breaks down, and a huge health and safety element were brought into the final design considerations.” Apollo Projects was engaged to manage the project from end-to-end, and complete it within a tight eight-month timeline to coincide with the annual harvest processing period in 2022. The project encompassed both structural and civil engineering services alongside Apollo Projects. While a ramp is typically used for the trucks to go up and then tip the fruit into a large above ground tipping bin, the final innovative design was a 6-metre in-ground pit with a static steel hopper supplied by Crown, a leading stainless steel engineering company. Proud to support Apollo Projects with the Cloudy Bay Vineyards development. www.boydwilsonelectrical.co.nz Phone 03 572 7448 for your industrial/commercial electrical work. Delivering structural engineering solutions throughout regional New Zealand.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=