Packhouse and cool store for sale

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

The complex, at Trig Rd, Waihi, features more than 2000sq m of operations on 6818sq m of land and houses long-running kiwifruit support company Waimata Horticulture.

Within the  complex is a 1220sq m refrigerated cool store, 930sq m packhouse, 350sq m of storage sheds, and a small administration block. The 400,000-tray capacity cool store has certification for Zespri kiwifruit packing.

The freehold land, buildings and plant, and going concern business are being marketed for sale for $2.5m by Bayleys Auckland and Bayleys Tauranga. 

Salespeople Mark Morphy and Phil Mangos say the property and business would attract a broad buyer dynamic.

“Potential buyers have the option of continuing the business as purely an  investment,” 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 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 Rd property is just off State Highway 2 about 2km south of Waihi. The high-stud 930sq m packhouse has a large canopy at the rear, enabling  B-train trucks to load effficiently.  

Morphy said the business’s inventory 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 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.”

The property features in Bayleys’ latest Total Property magazine.