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Seeka buys Aongatete Coolstores for $25 million eeka Limited has announced the acquisition of kiwifruit orcharding, packing and coolstore business, Aongatete Coolstores, for $25 million. It will be rebranded Seeka Aongatete. It plans to retain all permanent staff and will continue to provide services and support to growers who have been supplying fruit to Aongatete. The acquisition is aligned to Seeka’s growth strategy and builds on the company’s kiwifruit foundation. Seeka CEO, Michael Franks, says “Aongatete’s kiwifruit packhouse and cool-
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store facility processes around 4.5m trays of green and gold fruit, providing Seeka additional market presence in a growth industry. The acquisition complements our existing business with further infrastructure in a great growing location. Aongatete managing director, Allan Dawson, says growers’ futures stood in good stead with Seeka. “Seeka brings its own skills and economies of scale and recognises the Aongatete site will remain a centre of excellence and innovation for the kiwifruit Industry.” Article: Priority One.
Apata kiwifruit packhouse announces staff to receive living wage pata kiwifruit packhouse has announced that it will pay a living wage to full-time permanent staff - affecting more than 30 employees. Stuart Weston, Apata’s managing director, says the decision to embrace the living wage concept is part of a wider wellbeing programme which the company initiated last year. “One of our company values is that we are a family and we look after each other. So we challenged ourselves and decided we weren’t really acting out that value as well as we could.” The change would lift pay rates for 32 staff to at least $20.85/hr. Apata’s other wellness initiatives included organising
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more social activities, providing a confidential counselling service for staff, running regular courses on topics such as mental and physical health, managing stress, budgeting and positive communication, and being paid to volunteer their time in the community. “Mike King – who just won New Zealander of the Year – came and visited us last year. We had 95% of our full-time staff turn up to that event, and it was so powerful. It really resonated with all of us how important mental health is and gave us the impetus to make some of these changes,” Weston says. Article: Priority One.
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Bringing Farmlands Co-operative Values to Real Estate When Vanessa Charman-Moore discovered Farmlands Co-operative was bringing its rapidly expanding Real Estate division to Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty it seemed like too good an opportunity miss. Having spent the previous six years managing the roll-out of Tauranga’s fibre broadband network, she was looking for a new challenge. “I had spent six years working with the Tauranga and Bay of Plenty surveyors, developers and councils extending the fibre network into new areas such as Tauriko, Pāpāmoa East and the rapidly growing Ōmokoroa peninsula. The chance to continue to work with the development community as well as the locals really appealed to me.” After growing up on a lifestyle property and orchard in Tauriko and as a lifestyle property owner, Vanessa is a Farmlands shareholder, and like so many others was fond of the brand and its focus on customer service. Farmlands, originally a North Island co-operative had combined with the South Island cooperative, CRT, in 2013. The Real Estate service, which was part of CRT, was popular in the South Island, so it expanded into the North Island. Since then, Farmlands Real Estate has been rapidly growing to ensure provincial Real Estate expertise is accessible across the country. Of Farmlands’ 82 stores, 37 now have Real Estate sales consultants in them. With more than 68,000 shareholders, vendors who sell with Farmlands have marketing access to the largest Real Estate database in New Zealand, can get
preferential commission rates, pay no administration fees and are eligible for rebates. Vanessa is enjoying working with customers with subdividable properties and engaging her network of surveyors, developers and land seekers to get the best outcome for them. “I enjoy working with landowners to help them get the best return from their property with successful marketing. I also enjoy helping people onto their own piece of land, whether it is to build their dream home or give their children the opportunity of a more rural upbringing.” If you are looking to buy, sell or subdivide, then Vanessa can be contacted on 027 242 7646.
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| Lizard News | May 2019