Substantial packhouse and cool store operation for sale

The land, substantial industrial buildings, and business sustaining one of the biggest privately-owned horticultural packing and distribution centres in the Western Bay of Plenty have been placed on the market for sale.

The complex at Trig Road in Waihi features more than 2,000 square metres of operations plant sitting on 6,818 square metres of land - housing the operations of long running kiwifruit support company Waimata Horticulture.

Within the Waimata Horticulture complex is a 1,220square metre fully refrigerated cool store, a 930 square metre packhouse, 350 square metres of storage sheds, and a small office administration block. The 400,000-tray capacity cool store has current certification for Zespri kiwifruit packing.

Now the freehold land, all buildings and plant, and going concern business at 11 Trig Road are being marketed for sale for $2.5 million by Bayleys Auckland and Bayleys Tauranga. Salespeople Mark Morphy and Phil Mangos said the Waihi property and business for sale would attract a broad buyer dynamic.

“Potential buyers have the option of continuing the business in its current format as purely a business investment,” Mr Morphy said.

“Alternatively, there is the potential of separating out the cool store and packhouse activities, then leasing out of the cool store and packhouse to individual tenants in the horticultural production sector, or leasing out both the cool store and packhouse to one single tenant and selling the business activities to a tenant.

“Then from a rural production perspective, a potential new owner could combine the plant into their existing kiwifruit growing operation. Under that continued current use format, the infrastructure would enable a grower to elevate themselves up the primary produce chain by operating their own supply channel rather than having to contract out their crop handling.”

The Trig Road property is located just off State Highway 2 some two kilometres south of Waihi. The high-stud 930 square metre packhouse has a large canopy at the rear – enabling full accessibility for B-train trucks to sustain maximum loading efficiency.

Mr Morphy said the business’s equipment and machinery inventory was included in the sale chattels list, and included conveyor belt fruit selection equipment, graders, bins, forklifts tractors and commercial refrigeration units.

He said that with the size and scale of the Bay of Plenty’s kiwifruit production nucleus, Te Puke, expanding considerably since the PSA outbreak of 2010 and the sector’s subsequent recovery, crop tonnage support services had consequently grown considerably too.

“Over the first few years post 2010, kiwifruit tonnage increased through existing orchards increasing their canopy footprint. The next phase of the sector’s expansion saw the conversion of fertile farmland up and down the coast concentrically outward from Te Puke,” he said.

“Jumping Tauranga, kiwifruit orchards are now being developed in the north-western Bay of Plenty – particularly with small dairy run-off and support blocks being converted into SunGold and Zespri Red kiwifruit varietals which deliver better per hectare returns in the longer term..

“The Waimata Horticulture complex is strategically located to support that impending growth as the crops from those new orchards come on line soon.

“And that’s before we even start talking about the growth in the number and size of avocado orchards in the Bay as that market expands too.”

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