Breadcrumb section
Fresh thinking
Freshmax is one of the largest fresh produce marketing and distribution operations in the Southern Hemisphere. Since first being established in 1995 the company has gone from strength to strength. After expanding into Australia in 2006 the company then went on to expand internationally, making massive gains across a huge range of export and import locations.
Back in New Zealand the company focuses on supplying the local market from local stocks, importing fruit and vegetables and exporting our produce for the international market. On this global stage our country is known for growing some of the world’s finest fruit and vegetables.
Freshmax needs the utmost confidence this produce travels from orchard and farm origins to the end user. “From field to fork” everything needs to turn up as fresh and blemish-free as it was when first picked.
To do so they use operation and logistic centres in each of New Zealand’s growing regions, each centre carefully managed to help the company drive innovation and efficiency
The Universal team has been working with Freshmax for over 4 years now, starting out at the Palmerston North branch and now supplying all their sites nationally. Now we are the preferred supplier of all their pallet wrapping film and pallet wrapping machinery.
In this time Universal have introduced 5 Spinny S140 Semi units into the Auckland, Christchurch and Palmerston North operations along with Clearwrap18 Machine wrap, an approach that has seen productivity steadily increase.
Andrew Picken, National Distribution Manager says the team has been impressed by Universal’s openness in working alongside Freshmax as they made the business more effective and streamlined.
“The new (Spinny) machines have been very successful,” says Andrew. “They have addressed a number of health and safety concerns, particularly from the continual bending the staff had to do whilst wrapping the pallets.”
It’s not only the health and safety standards and consistent results that have endeared the Spinny technology to Freshmax.
“We’ve been able to give our customers a newfound confidence with how we can present to stores,” says Andrew. “this gives us peace of mind knowing our pallets are being well wrapped for transport”.
Universal believes in gaining a good understanding of our customers business so we can best assist with their pallet wrapping requirements. We understand the role pallet wrap plays in your distribution center in ensuring your pallets are safe and well contained during transport and storage.
For Andrew Picken it’s a solid working relationship, with Universal staff seen as “part of the team” when visiting on site.
“Dealing with Jed, Garth and the rest of the team has always been easy and positive – their professionalism shines through and you know they’ve always got the best interests of Freshmax at heart,” says Andrew.
