Issue 2 • October 2016

IN THIS ISSUECOLLEEN IS A TV STAR! • STEFFAN IS SWEET ENOUGH

WHERE TO EAT • EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH • JAMES IS LOOKING FOR LOVE

THE PRODUCE COMPANY

CAPTAIN CAPSICUM

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!

Congratulations to Richie Bennett, winner of the HP

desktop computer and LG Flatron screen. Many cried “rigged” when he won but his was just one of the many entries that we received and his entry was the first picked out of a hat by Pam, it was all legit. Being a Mac user, an HP computer would have been like ice to an Eskimo but no doubt he’ll give it to someone that needs it.

Responses to all ideas will be published soon. The next prize has been kindly donated by Johnny.

JEAN LUC PILCHARD & ITA CASE OF CARTERS UNIONS WINE

Every idea that’s submitted is heard and reviewed by management, some are already being implemented. Keep submitting your ideas to win at links.producecompany.co.nz/ideas

New IT Support - Base-2 are no longer providing IT support for the Produce Company. We have changed to Swerve – swerve.co.nz. In the interim, please direct all urgent IT queries to Woody on 027 700 1330 and we will advise as to the after hours numbers to call if urgent IT support is needed.

BLAKE & VANUATUSeptember was our biggest month

of trade to date. We are growing and there has been some great news over the last day or so that Air NZ have inspected the runway upgrades and have given the green light to return, the date is yet to be announced at this stage. New local fruit is coming into season such as Mangoes, Limes, Oranges and also local Spring Lamb!

As most of you will be able to see we are in Spring cleaning mode,

the front yard, the parking, night run and some major computer changes are just a few of the things that have been

going on in time for the Summer push. A few months ago Rob and I went to the UK to see JJ Foods, a large food distribution company, we came back with a list of ten key things we took

away from the experience that would be good for us to implement. It’s great to see the speed and “buy in” that you guys have adopted in evolving. Keep up the good work and eat your greens!

JASON: MARUA ROAD CAFE159 Marua Road, Mount Wellington

They’ve recently opened in a new build site on Marua road, serving tasty food and Six Barrel syrups mixed to your liking. Stand by for Garage Project on tap once their licence is in place!

RECOMMENDED BY OUR REPS

WHERETO EAT

We’ve implemented a new Returns Policy – Items that cannot be

returned: All meat, dairy, frozen or other items requiring temperature control. Customers must call CS to request for products to be collected. At The Produce Company, we believe in protecting the environment. Our new Sustainability Policy will be an ongoing journey which will improve with time and experience.

Richie has designed new Sales Presentations to help our reps open new accounts. Get ready to wow customers!

During our virus outage, Pam stepped up to ensure that customer orders were fulfilled no matter what step backs affected us all. Also this month she gained her Workplace First Aider Certificate. Congrats, Pam!

Gearing up for Summer. More and bigger orders coming in to

start covering the increase in sales. It’s gonna be a fun ride!

We have introduced the new 3 tray Egg box to help with picking and packing efficiency.

Morgan helping to update the PCL online store with product info and pictures needed to increase online sales. Bill ‘Morgan’ Gates!

When I’m at a wedding, old people always poke me and say ‘You’re next’. So I started doing the same thing to them at funerals!

MR POTATO HEAD & CS

SIR SCALLION & PURCHASING

5/10/16 Christine celebrated her 11th anniversary with PCL!

Steffan and Kate from LifeSpark Nutrition set us the Sugarfree

September challenge. Dave, Steffan, Rob, John, Anu and others around the office took up the challenge to remove all refined sugars from their diet for 30 days, to raise funds and awareness for Diabetes New Zealand and the advocacy they do to help support hundreds of thousands of kiwis with diabetes. The aim is to help give your body a rest from sugar for 30 days and see if you feel the wellness benefits of having less sugar in your diet.

Why did Adele cross the road?To say hello from the other siiiiide.

Colleen and her family were on Family Feud from the 27th

September, a game show which families must answer questions correctly to win cash. The Flemings stayed in the game for 3 nights straight, walking away with $5,000 cash! Congratulations Colleen! If you missed it you can watch it On Demand on the TV 3 website.

11 YE

ARS!

RANDY RADISH & WIGWIG now has a Facebook Page.

This is hugely important in the history of PCL, a first and most valuable for staff on the whole. Check it out and see our Feed the Homeless Project. Please feel free to extract photos and comment.

We enjoyed our time spent in the city giving out food and drinks to the homeless. The team had no expectations or who, what and how many homeless we will find. Sadly we found a few too many in our city needing a hand up.

Special thanks to Dallas and Latisha and their families who helped cook up nice pots of stew and soups. Good one ladies!

Another highlight of the day was seeing Justin & Nina and their young girl walk the streets and be part of the project. Just wish young families like Justin & Nina could do the same.

The Twins - not only posing hard at every opportunity, they

do work hard with little help from others. They unloaded 2 containers in a day, a record for PCL. Taonga & Justin completed unloading our 40’ container in 3 hours overseen by a MPI Officer.

“We enjoyed our time spent in the city giving out food and drink to

the homeless”

Latisha Hafa has started her new role as Inventory Control

Supervisor. Her mission is to ensure all incoming goods are controlled in all aspects, from quality to full administration requirements and monitoring processes/systems.

I trust that this change will create a transparent working relationship between Purchasing and WIG as we head towards new systems and technology to manage our work in the future.

Please join me in congratulating Latisha and wishing her the very best.

Smoke house, as some of you have smelt and tasted we are

working on a range of smoked/cooked products that will add value to our business.

We are on the lookout for a new butcher to replace Dan. It’s hard work to find a qualified tradesperson now days!

Short staffed, we have been running on a skeleton team but are getting through the work. A big thanks to the Meat Team from B2 and B2 for their extra effort.

Ian Clarke is the grandfather of the night shift team. He is reliable, willing to help (training Pio on boning beef) and always has a “smile on the dial”. Cheers for the hard work old boy!

T-BONE & THE MEAT HEADS

ONION JAM & THE DRIVERS

The team is doing really well, the runs are leaving on time

which is a big positive. We had a BBQ last Friday to celebrate the success and hard work. Inder and Rohit finished with us so we’d like to say them goodbye and best of luck for their future. Welcome to the team, Harry and Apii! They’re both the rising stars of the month. We have been working on planning the Night Run, we now have the list of customers so it will be kicking off on 10th of October. Bestrane, the new delivery and scheduling management software will be live sometime in October.

While delivering to COCOS, Prabh was greeted by bird droppings!

HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD TO THE NEXT GRAPEVINE?EVERY STAFF MEMBER CAN CONTRIBUTE! EMAIL RICHIE@PRODUCE.CO.NZTHANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ISSUE!!

EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTHIN RECOGNITION OF OUTSTANDING WORK, THE FOLLOWING STAFF WILL RECEIVE A $40 MOVIE VOUCHER! Rosalyn Matua-Heamata | Apii | Harry | Pamela | Ian Clarke | Taonga | Justin | Morgan

MELON MARTINI & THE PACKERSWelcome to Memory, Night

Packing Administrator, she has learnt very quickly and is doing great. YoungSun, Liana, Rosene and Ralph are also new to the Packing Team. Some of you may have already met and got to know Nabil Bouzian, he has been here as an intern, training and learning in the Customer Services office. He will also be joining the Packing Department this week as a part timer on Friday and Sunday afternoons. Good luck and welcome to all.

Rosalyn Matua-Heamata has been doing an outstanding job lately and especially with Anurag being away she has really stepped up. She shows the qualities needed from a great Team Leader. She always makes sure that she completes her tasks thoroughly each night and is a great team player. Trevina Graham is doing really well as Team Leader Assistant, please show her support and encouragement as she continues to learn the ropes. You go girls!

We wish Kamalpreet Singh all the best as he leaves us to pursue his career as a Civil Engineer in Christchurch. You will be missed but we wish you the best of luck Kamal and are proud of you and your achievement.

Sales are picking up as we head into the Summer season. Due to

demand, we’re looking at offering a 7-day delivery service to Hamilton. Hamilton is growing rapidly and we are bringing on more customers almost daily!

Sky City in Hamilton has finished their new refit and now offer a Lane style range of dining options similar

SIR LANCE SHALLOT & SALES to Ponsonby Central. We’ve picked up a lot more lines since they’ve upgraded.

Mikey from Bracu has moved on to raise his new baby son. Logan, who was Sous Chef at Clooney has taken over. He’s a nice guy and I am looking forward to growing the range they buy from us. Meat is already on the butcher’s block, saving him the hassle of getting it freighted by us from other companies.

JOSH – He is the man and is always smashing it out for others, let’s give him some support to sell more Garage Project, send any drinkers his way.

While we know so many of you are worth mentioning, the following have been noticed by others to stand head and shoulders above the rest this past couple of months:

Maria Peau - She hasn’t been with us long but works really hard. She floats to the other stations when needed and motivates others to work harder, which is quite a task on its own. She is very helpful with our new employees attending to their needs when required on each station, and upholds process and procedure.

Maria Capill – Is an outstanding team player and is always seen on the move from section to section walking briskly around the warehouse getting the job done. She is thorough in her work and always has a smile on her face.

Rajvinder Singh – Always shows great effort, performs very well, is consistent and follows process, which he has done from the time he has started with us.

Richard Su – A real trooper, works very hard and always tries his best while keeping the laughs coming.

Cameron Arnold – As well as a very awesome part of the Export Team, Cam is always there to help out Supervisors and Team Leaders when they need him, we all appreciate his hard working ethic and helping hand.

Lorraine Te Moananui – Is an asset to our Company. She is hard working, reliable and consistent in her work and efforts always. Thank you Lori. Thank you all.

WE WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOLLOWING STAFF

JAMES FROM PURCHASING IS LOOKING FOR LOVE or any kind of action. If you know anyone who is looking for a long term affair or just a quick number 3 in the park, please let James know.

The team in HK are now 5 hours behind NZ. Summer is over and

temperatures have returned to the very comfortable 20’s. The super yacht that has been keeping us busy, has left for Thailand and we are now focusing on some big new accounts. Watch this space for a new e-commerce website by the end of the month!

PHILLY & HONG KONG