Tenants snap up food hub leases
A large site next door to Heinz Wattie’s factory in Hawke’s Bay is earmarked to become a new food and beverage production hub.
The 16.5-hectare greenfield site, known as Tomoana Food Hub, in Hastings, is being developed by a long-established Hawke’s Bay business, owned by the Taylor family, which also operates Tomoana Warehousing and Transport.
Some of the lots have already been leased to businesses wanting to service the food and beverage sector, with only 9.7ha of land left.
The hub would be made up of processing and manufacturing plants, storage facilities, packaging centres, distribution or transport companies, as well as research centres.
Tomoana Food Hub development manager Logan Taylor said the hub could host any business operating within the food industry.
‘‘We are creating a collaborative workspace for food and beverage businesses to cluster and share knowledge, byproducts, energy, logistics and infrastructure, resulting in increased productivity and profitability.’’
A number of companies have already come on board at the Tomoana Food Hub.
Chinese-owned company Jamestrong has established a new 7500-square-metre tin-plate coating plant building on 2ha of land close to its existing plant in Hastings.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Miracle Water has established a 9500sqm manufacturing facility on a 2.5-hectare site to produce packaged water, mainly for export.
Other occupants include multinational pallet and container pooling services firm CHEP, Tomoana Warehousing, and Fonterra.
Bayleys Havelock North and Hastings branch manager Daniel Moffit said a site of this scale was rare in Hawke’s Bay. Tomoana Food Hub was close to easily accessible transport links, he said.