Kiwi Produce won the Bennetts Proactive Supreme Award at the 10th Te Puke Business Excellence Awards this year.
"Our team is really thrilled with the result," said Kiwi Produce's Geoff Oliver, who with his wife, Nicky, founded the specialist packhouse operation on their family orchard 30 years ago. Kiwi Produce also won the Zespri Agriculture/Horticulture/Industrial Award category.
The Paengaroa-based company has been a pioneer in developing the jumbo kiwifruit and the kiwiberry segments of the market. In the past three years, it has diversified into producing a range of new kiwifruit products, including Kiwilicious Dried Kiwifruit and Kiwilicious IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) Kiwifruit.
"Lately we've been processing waste kiwifruit and have developed new markets in New Zealand and in about five new countries," said Mr Oliver.
Kiwi Produce also recently picked up a contract to provide a Gold kiwifruit ingredient for a Japanese manufacturer of an iceream that is expected to be distributed into 3500 7-11 stores in Tokyo, said Mr Oliver.
The company now packs more than 2 million tray equivalents of locally grown fruit for domestic and export markets and employs from 30 to 60 staff. The business operates six coolstores on the same site as the packhouse.
Mark Boyle, chief executive of event organiser Te Puke EDG, said this year's awards, held Friday 28 Oct., at the Te Puke Town Hall, had been an outstanding success, drawing 170 attendees. Despite being a relatively small district with 17,000 people, it continued to deliver a first-class programme that matched the business awards in the main cities.
