Wellness practitioner Robin Wilson is concerned about burnout with many of us getting sent too much information, which is leading to us feeling as if we’re always on.

“We are bombarded by information and not hitting the off button. We’re constantly on and wired. We need to stop. If we’re constantly in the red zone of stress, we will run out of fuel. We need to listen to the warning signs.”

Robin’s businesses, Holistic Wellness and Workplace Wellness, is built around helping people and workplaces avoid burnout and achieve health and wellbeing. These journeys to wellness began with her own.

It began with a moment of realisation one morning, when she and her family were camping with friends.

As she says in a blog, “I woke feeling dreadful… The previous day had been awesome, and we’d enjoyed a fun night, but somehow, my off switch once again malfunctioned.

“By the time enough was enough, it was too late.”

Robin had made the decision to stop drinking and get well before, but this time, she was determined to make it stick.

At the time, she had a stressful and busy career in banking and a seriously unwell husband.

“I look back at some decisions and wonder what I was thinking – like going to a bank conference rather than my son’s Year 13 prizegiving and finding out afterwards he was awarded a scholarship. This wasn’t a rational decision, it was fear based.”

She embarked on a quest for wellness but considered only her physical health.

“My life was still out of balance, as I only addressed one aspect. The warning signs were there, and I ended up with the autoimmune disease Ulcerative Colitis.”

Robin’s focus on her own wellness eventually became an exploration of how she could help others on the same journey. After leaving the bank, she trained as a massage therapist, and a health and wellness coach and through taking a holistic approach, Robin healed herself.

Now, she helps people in similar situations, supporting clients on their journey to get their life back on track with better balance.

During a brief interlude working for a charity, Robin met Leonie Wallwork, who could become a friend and business partner.

They decided to go to Outward Bound together, and it was there that the idea for a Workplace Wellness business was born.

Workplace Wellness applies the same principles to workplaces as Robin does to individuals: it helps them increase productivity by becoming resilient, robust and resourceful through a purposeful, strategic approach.

Robin says the need for support has increased exponentially with COVID-19.

“What are we seeing? Tired people, who limped to Christmas last year without a break.

“People with capacity issues. People with a great work ethic, who don’t set boundaries or hit the pause button.

“People whose values are being tested, who are feeling unsure about having difficult conversations in their workplaces. People working from home and working through when sick… not taking leave despite their employers’ strong encouragement.”

Robin credits her own tenacity and curiosity with how far she has come personally, and with her two businesses.

“I love learning new things; my coaching studies were a game changer for me.”

She believes that both individuals and businesses need to seek help to understand.

“So many of our issues stem from a lack of conversations and understanding.”

At its simplest, Robin says that businesses, and people, should be clear about their core principles.

“Values are like our GPS. If we’re not living in line with our values and purpose, that’s when it goes bad.”

“We need multiple tools in our toolkit, and we need to be open to learning. That way, we’re better equipped to deal with the inevitable rocks in the road.”

Wattie’s has completed a multi-million dollar upgrade of its Hastings pet food manufacturing site, positioning itself for future growth in the petfood industry.

The pet food manufacturing facility in Tomoana, Hastings produces one of New Zealand’s leading household cat food brands Chef® as well as its other pet food brands Gourmet®, Champ® and a range of pet food products for export.

The main focus of the upgrade was an investment in a new canning retort capability designed to increase reliability and productivity through state-of-the-art equipment that will underpin growth within the category by providing the means and space to substantially scale-up production.

Neil Heffer, Managing Director of Heinz Wattie’s Limited says the Tomoana facility upgrade is a reflection of a commitment to champion New Zealand made products and the benefits this brings to the local economy.

“Chef® is a pioneering brand that has been loved by Kiwis and their pets for more than 50 years. We are proud of the heritage of the Chef® brand and this significant investment in its future to know we will continue producing pet food for Kiwi cats and dogs for many years to come.”

The new $20 million facility increases the pet food manufacturing footprint by nearly 1650 square metres, with the ability to thermally process more than 15,000 cans an hour.

Over 10 main contractors and many more sub-contractors, design consultants and engineering experts local to Hawke’s Bay were engaged to complete the upgrade.  The range of local businesses involved included those in building construction, lighting, fire protection, and equipment design, installation, and commissioning.

The facility is a positive step for Wattie’s pet food manufacturing in Hastings. On a wider scale these types of investments help to provide a continuity of projects for local businesses within Hawke’s Bay.

According to information published by the New Zealand Petfood Manufacturers Association, ‘64% of households own at least one companion animal, with a total pet population of 4.35 million. This is the second highest rate of pet ownership in the world.’

The upgrade to the Tomoana facility marks a new era of pet food production for Wattie’s which comes at a time when there are shortages of pet food, mainly due to global shipping delays, clearly impacting New Zealand.

The facility was officially opened by Hastings’ Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst on June 1, signifying the Council’s ongoing support of the facility and the future of pet food manufacturing in Hastings.

The significant investment supports the Council’s ambitions to help facilitate the growth of other businesses in Hawke’s Bay, bringing employment opportunities and further investment to the region.

MHM Automation designs and supplies automated systems for food processing. They understand the challenges processors face and develop solutions to deliver better quality product with improved food safety and reduced reliance on manual labour.

The company is recognised as a technology leader, with its equipment installed for some of the world’s most prominent names in dairy and meat processing.

For primary processors of cheese, MHM Automation provides complete line automation from the cheese tower to palletising, including the BetaVac vacuum packing system and Milmeq cheese cooling tunnel, renowned for its reliability and simplicity of operation.

For primary processors of meat and fresh produce, they offer complete line automation from packing to palletising. Equipment includes AiCo carton erectors, lidders and closers, and Milmeq chilling and freezing tunnels or Milmeq plate freezers for fast, energy-efficient freezing.

For secondary processors, the H&C reverse packaging system is the only one of its kind, providing complete process automation at the front end of the processing line. Functions include de-palletising, de-cartoning, de-bagging and defect detection. Integrated vision systems allow for variability in product shape and size.

MHM Automation’s point of difference is their ability to develop custom solutions in response to each processor’s needs and integrate them within the existing production line. The partnership with Rockit is an example of this approach.

Tasked with increasing the throughput at the Rockit apple packing plant, MHM Automation reviewed the existing operations and identified tube filling as the first priority task to automate. A product development process followed, including design, prototyping, testing and proving and then fine-tuning before producing the final machines now installed at the plant. Their work with Rockit continues, with focus now turning to automating the orientation and placement of apples onto the infeed conveyor, prior to filling the tubes.

From its offices across New Zealand and Australia, MHM Automation supplies food processors around the world. The company has a significant presence in the Hawkes Bay, with its centre of excellence for packaging and reverse packaging systems in Hastings (historically Haden & Custance) employing 55 staff in the region.

Talk to one of their industry specialists about how automation could benefit your processing operation and get your plant future-ready.

At Red Steel, it’s all about creating efficiencies to ensure deadlines and budgets are met.

Since 2002 Red Steel managing director Bob Hawley and his team have honed their processes and focussed on increasing production from their Pandora workshop.

Red Steel has developed streamlined processes within its supply chain, introduced smart software to track all projects, and invested in equipment that enables a turnkey project solution.

Red Steel started work on the project in August 2019 in the very early stages of the construction of the 20,600m² post-harvest facility for Rockit Global.

The state of the art facility in Irongate was predominantly built of steel. In fact the building is made up of 33, 346 pieces of steel, which span a total of 57 kilometre and weighing 1012 tonne!

Red Steel managing director Bob Hawley says it’s been one of their major projects over the last year with the majority of the 39 strong workforce of detailers, fabricators and site crew involved in the project.

The steel was transported to the site and put together using 23,425 bolts. Working to a tight construction programme we staged our on-site activities to allow follow-on trades to commence work as we progressed down the building.

Bob says the Rockit project is the second largest food processing facility they’ve been involved with and he’s particularly proud that it was all done in house.

“We started on the project very early with our detailers working alongside the engineer consultants Strata Group, who did the design and by being involved early enabled us to tweak details, which made it more cost effective.”

“A job like this is about repetition. We love repetition as we get efficiencies going  that benefits all involved.

Detailing has been at the forefront of Red Steels quality procedures since it was brought in-house 15 years ago.

The business has gone to the next step introducing machinery on the shop floor that “talk” to the detailing software – parts are now cut, marked and drilled by machines that receive their instructions directly from software programmes removing the need to print drawings and risk human error when manually completing these tasks.

The latest machine is a PeddiWriter which adds layout marks on steel sections removing the need for fabricators to manually measure and mark out where items are to be welded together.

Only one other fabricator in New Zealand has a Peddiwriter, and they’re in the South Island.

Red Steel has some major projects on the go both in Hawke’s Bay and in Wellington.

Hawke’s Bay projects include the new large format retail centre in Taradale Road – The Crossing and a new multi-story apartment living and retail building in Ahuriri on the site of the former iconic NJ Price Building. Red Steel has also started on the HB Regional Aquatic Centre at Mire 10 Sports Park.

“There’s a lot of work in the pipeline and it’s exciting to be part of building landmark structures in the Bay.”

Constant improvement and challenging the status quo is sage advice that siblings Barbara Brittin and Richard Kinnear took from their father Gordon, a pioneer in the development of refrigerated food storage facilities in Hawke’s Bay.

Gordon never went looking for accolades and he wasn’t one to conform but instead, he always looked for how things could be done better.

He was regarded as a risk-taker, willing to take a punt on business opportunities that came his way, and this led to him being at the forefront of atmosphere-controlled storage facilities within the horticulture and meat sectors.

Gordon was a lateral thinker who would challenge the status quo – so-called experts as well as bureaucracy – as he always strived for improving performance.

His first controlled-atmosphere storage complex was in Napier Road, Havelock North, in the early 1980s, and he followed this up by partnering with some American investors to buy the Whakatu freezer storage facilities following the closure of the meat works. Next up was a cool store in Caroline Road, on the opposite side of the railway tracks to Heinz Watties Ltd.

Gordon sadly passed away in 2016 but he had mentored Barbara and Richard well, each taking on his business smarts as well as bringing their own skills to the business, Britkin Construction, which had until then gone under the radar.

Today, what gives Britkin a point of difference to other industrial and commercial construction businesses is that they have skin in the game.

The pair say it’s easy to tell a client that their building will be built well and perform as expected, but Britkin can back it up with a track record of owning and operating food storage facilities.

As well as designing, project managing and building storage facilities, Britkin also has ownership in large modern facilities such as the Henderson Road Coolstores and Hill Road Coolstores used by horticulture leaders such as Bostock New Zealand.

Henderson Road cool store

“We have a vested interest. Not only have we built facilities for others but we’ve also built storage facilities for our family business interests, firstly beginning with Dad and the Napier Road cool store through to our latest projects at Hill Road and Henderson Road.

“It’s that experience that makes us different; we’ve worked out through trial and error what makes storage facilities and industrial and commercial buildings function as expected. We also understand the technology and innovations in the storage of food products, the logistics of moving products and the importance of ensuring that a storage facility is efficient and highly productive.”

Richard says Britkin adds more value to a client than just constructing a building.

“We like to be involved very early on in a project, when the client decides to build but they might not have found land to build on.

“We can help them identify the most suitable piece of land, help them navigate through the council consents process, offer advice on financing the project and then provide input into the design, based on years of experience. We then project manage and build the facility.

“We’ve been walking in and out of industrial and commercial buildings since we were kids and from our teens, we worked for Dad in storage facilities to now operating storage facilities.

“We’re not a construction company that just hunts out a tender and builds the complex; our value to the client starts much earlier and we can lead them on a journey to creating a high-performing and cost-effective facility, whether it be a cool store, a commercial office or a chicken farm.”

Britkin has been a long-standing construction partner to the Bostock Group of businesses, which includes fruit and squash facilities through to large-scale chicken farm buildings and a chicken processing facility for the Bostock Organic Chicken brand.

More recently, Richard has also been involved in the construction of a Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) accommodation facility in Irongate.

“There’s been a variety of projects that we have done for Bostocks and it’s been wide ranging, from fruit and vegetable processing to a chicken factory to worker accommodation.”

In the last year Britkin has also built a 2,900 m² cool store in Pakowhai Road and a storage facility for animal food nutrition business Ruminate.

Richard says Britkin has strong contractor relationships across all aspects of construction, including geotech, structural engineering, surveying and planning through to technical and equipment specialists.

“We have long-standing relationships with many local firms and we always pull together the best team for the job.”

www.britkin.co.nz 

Agnew Transport owner Willie Agnew understands his customers’ needs like no other.

Willie started his career as a fruit and vegetable farmer and to this day is still involved in the industry as an orchard owner.

“Coming from this background, I needed trucks to come and cart my own produce. I understand the importance of having a reliable carrier who can pick up and deliver produce in the best possible condition, on time and at a reasonable rate,”

This led Willie to purchase a truck for his own carting needs. He soon expanded and carted for other growers, establishing Agnew Transport Services Ltd.

“My relationship with Rockit started on the ground floor when they started distributing the unique apple that they sell today.

“We are proud that Agnew Transport continues to be Rockit’s main transport service provider for carting apples from their orchards to the packhouse, and local coolstore/packhouse work.

“Our transport dispatchers are focused with helping all our customers, including working with Rockit, to maintain the constant supply of apples from orchards to their packhouse.”

Agnew Transport offers a fleet predominately to service the horticulture sector but also has suitable equipment to do other commodities, including fertilizer, aggregate, silage. hay and general freight.

To support the transport division, Agnew Transport has diversified the business into two divisions – earthworks/civil and agriculture contracting.

“This has enabled us to assist our horticulture clients (including Rockit) with their new green field developments and any re-development within their orchards and vineyards.

“This has been a huge help to assist with our staffing requirements with work all year round, as the harvest season happens in a very small window of the year.”

As a smaller local company Agnew Transport takes pride in offering customers the personal touch a larger corporation cannot deliver resulting in the company catch phrase: big enough to deliver, small enough to care.

Willie says that as Agnew Transport is an established local business it offers an excellent knowledge of the area. Competitive pricing and flexible hours are other hallmarks of the company to meet customer needs.

This is especially important as every year Agnew Transport carts large volumes of fruit and produce to various packhouses and processing facilities.

“We have the systems and people in place to gear up to manage peak season requirements for our clients. Our experience means we understand their business and we know how to deliver what they need when they require.”