Prime pickings as seasonal workers’ block for sale
One of the biggest commercially-operated seasonal worker’s accommodation sites and businesses in New Zealand has been placed on the market for sale.
The land, buildings and business, known as Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers is located on the outskirts of Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty – New Zealand’s foremost kiwifruit growing region.
The 12,140-square metre property at 26 Young Road in Paengaroa is adjacent to the headquarters of one of New Zealand’s biggest fullyintegrated orchard-to-market service companies, Seeka – which is instantly recognisable to the public for the giant kiwifruit monument outside its offices.
Established in 2007, Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers has evolved from purely servicing the budget tourism accommodation sector, into its current role as being one of the biggest single-site seasonal worker’s complexes in New Zealand.
The Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers complex has a wide range of accommodation buildings and support amenities licensed to house up to 500 fruit picking, packing, and orchard maintenance workers in the Bay of Plenty horticultural sector.
Now the freehold land, building infrastructure, and going concern Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers business at 26 Young Road in Paengaroa have been placed on the market for sale by international tender through Bayleys Auckland and Bayleys Tauranga – with tenders closing on October 15.
Bayleys salespeople Jayson Hayde, Paul Dixon, and Snow Williams said strict Government regulations now in place for the management of international seasonal workers had further strengthened Kiwi Corral’s position in the market.
“Immigration regulations for international workers states that RSEclassified personnel can’t live in private residential dwellings unless that condition was included in the recruitment agreement prior to September last year. Similarly, new RSE-classified personnel can’t rent private residential dwellings,” said Hayde.
“That means professional accommodation providers such as Kiwi Corral bear the responsibility for the provision of those services. The additional services provided by Kiwi Corral place it at the top of the list for orchard and packhouse owners around the Te Puke region.
“The sale of Kiwi Corral is an opportunity for some of the larger local kiwifruit growers or packhouse operators in the Bay of Plenty to vertically integrate their business activities – giving them control over the production process of their crops and adding to their core revenue stream.”
In addition to the accommodation services, Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers also provides worker transportation to the multiple orchards and packhouses around Te Puke, and also providers transport for guests to Te Puke’s supermarkets for the provision of food and personal supplies.
Hayde said that with 2000 beds available to seasonal workers in the Bay of Plenty, Kiwi Corral in its current format had a 25 percent share of the market. The next biggest accommodation providers in the region could only house up to 200 personnel.
Meanwhile, packhouses could only build on-site staff accommodation facilities for up to 75 RSE workers – with the associated up-front consenting application and construction costs deterring many fruit growers from developing facilities themselves.
“Both these factors further underpin the long-term viability and ongoing customer suppler for Kiwi Corral’s services.” he said.