How the haka changed packhouses

It is situated on a 20ha site and packs about 10% of all the kiwifruit grown in New Zealand. The business is also family-owned and operated and it’s under the leadership of James Trevelyan that an innovative management process has emerged.

Trevelyans have adopted a Japanese way, or more specifically the Toyota system, of management and that’s where the ‘haka’ comes into play – twice-a-day, every day. 

But it’s not the haka you’d see the All Blacks or anyone else performing.  In fact, it’s far from being a loud warcry: the word haka is in this case Japanese for ‘talk’, or more specifically ‘stand up talk’  and that’s what happens.

Paul Monkley, of Trevelyans, explains that ‘haka’ meetings are held during every shift at the packhouse. He says the whole place comes to a standstill while supervisors and then staff hold their individual hakas. 

“For five minutes all the divisions get together with their supervisors and discuss their progress,” he explains. “What they did last shift, what they are doing this shift and any improvements that can be made. They are also given news such as visitors to the plant. We try to keep the staff informed about everything that’s going on. Supervisors will hold separate meetings and later some information from these will be passed to staff at their haka meetings. We have had amazing improvements come from such meetings.” 

Monkley says they also put out a staff newsletter to keep people informed about what’s going on. Once the main packing for the season is over, the permanent staff – about 100 – are invited to take part in company run ‘improvement groups’.

“So each division will get a cross-section of their staff and they will have an improvement meeting. It’s held in work time and staff are paid to do it. They can chuck anything they like at us that they think might help them work or feel better and help Trevelyans improve its operation.” 

Right now all the main packing has been done. The only work being done in the main packhouse is some repacking as kiwifruit is taken from the coolstore and re-checked before being exported. 

But at the height of the season it’s a different story. 

At the beginning of the season, Trevelyans send out 24,000 huge bins to its 220 supplier orchards. Each of the bins can hold 400kg of kiwifruit. These are brought back to the packhouse and placed in a coolstore before being packed and exported. 

Monkley says there are three packhouses on the site and they run two shifts a day. “The dayshift runs from 7.30am until 5.30pm, and the nightshift runs from 6pm until 4.30am. Each line would pack around 35,000 trays in that shift; so in one 24-hour period 210,000 trays would be packed,” he tells Rural News. 

“At the peak of the season, we have around 1200 staff, including locals, lots of backpackers and motorhome people who come through and work the winter here to make some money. This year we had 38 different nationalities working for us.” 

Last year, Trevelyans packed eight million trays of kiwifruit and this year will pack just over 13 million, reflecting the bounce back from Psa to a great season. The packhouses, just like an airport terminal, are busy, busy, busy. There are some 40 forklifts operating at the same time on all shifts and as Monkley says “it’s full on”.

“You have forklifts unloading the trucks and putting the fruit away, others operating in the coolstores and others taking the fruit to the packing lines. In that three month period we also make about 7 million boxes on site, so forklift drivers take these from the box making machines and feed the packing lines. We have special machines making the boxes.”

While there is a lot of automation at Trevelyans, all the grading is done manually. So is the packing and stacking of boxes. 

Monkley says the manual system works well, with very low loss of fruit and gate returns to growers very good.

As well as kiwifruit, Trevelyans also packs avocados and feijoas.

A commitment to sustainability

One big success story at this packhouse has been its wholehearted commitment to sustainability.

Trevelyans define 'sustainability' as looking after the environment and their people. The company has empowered its staff and used their practical skill to come up with and buy into change – which translates to better outcomes for everyone.

Not surprisingly, packing kiwifruit generates a lot of rubbish, especially packaging materials. In the early 2000s waste cardboard was put in steel cages situated at various locations around the site, Paul Monkley says. The wind would blow the cardboard around, but it was worse than that.

"We used to get those cages emptied every day, six days a week. So over a three month period that meant 72 trucks coming on site just to take the cardboard away," Monkley explains. "Now we compact it and sell it and that takes just five truck-and-trailer loads a year."

He says the decision in 2011 to compact the cardboard has changed the look of the place. Not only is cardboard separated out and compacted – so is plastic, plastic strapping and the backings of labels. The latter is sold to a local piggery for bedding for the pigs. To top it off, any leaves or dust on the site are taken away and composted and used in Trevelyans' orchards.

"The whole company has moved into sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint. We have done a number of things such as getting rid of all our diesel and gas forklifts and replacing them with electric ones," Monkley adds. "Sensors control the lighting in our coolstores to save power. Three years ago we won the NZ sustainability award for a large emerging business."