Leading the world in frost protection technology
With the region’s focus on the primary sector it’s no surprise that there’s a host of businesses dedicated to innovation, servicing and selling goods and services to the agribusiness sector.
One such business is New Zealand Frost Fans which is based in Omahu Road and it’s from here that a range of frost fans are designed, manufactured, installed, serviced and distributed throughout the world.
In addition to selling frost fans in New Zealand and Australia the company has distributors in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Israel, Italy and Turkey.
At the end of July the company received two prestigious awards: the 2021 ASB Hawke’s Bay Exporter of the Year and the T&G Global Best Established Business Award. Judges said the company set a new standard for a growth company that was well balanced - a key factor that saw it take out the big prize.
In the award citation, the judges said New Zealand Frost Fans stood out from the many strong entries: “The strong and local partner ecosystem, innovative production and shipping systems, and IP in their blades combine to showcase a very well-balanced company with strong capability and growth prospects. Despite many challenges with sheer growth, logistics, and unable to travel to many of its markets, they have performed in an exemplary way.”
It was Steve Haslett who, in 2007 transformed the business to become a significant exporter and market leader in Australia and New Zealand. In May 2021 Andrew Priest was appointed new CEO but
Steve remains close to the company as a shareholder and non-executive director.
“The Hawke’s Bay Exporter of the Year Award recognises the passion and dedication of our staff and distributors throughout the world, the fantastic support we receive from NZTE and our customers for believing in New Zealand Frost Fans and our products,” Priest says.
Kay says that their export award was largely due to the growth of their market in Chile. The main crop they protect there is cherries which are high value and susceptible to frost. There’s plenty of scope to further expand the market to protecting avocado, table grapes and citrus.
“What we look for are tight cluster regions of horticultural growers. We also look at spreading our exposure across not just geographical markets but also across crop types.”
Growth of the company has been steady over the last five years and business has doubled in that time. In November 2019 a new shareholder, Pencarrow Private Equity Ltd, came on-board and holds 75% of the shares.
Back in Omahu Road the warehouse space was expanded 18 months ago and there are plans to build a new factory for manufacturing composite blades using robotic technology. “A lot of investment is going into the company to increase our capacity and we’ve got some pretty big growth targets over the next few years,” Kay says.