Prolific Packhouse

If the first three months of 2005 are anything to go by then the Well Pict European packhouse is going to be a very busy place during the summer season, writes production and warehouse manager Peter Taylor.

So far this year, there has been almost a 100% increase in the number of punnets packed at the Honeybourne site; the first week in March saw the 2 million barrier broken.

The same team as last season has achieved these amazing volumes with the Lynda Ward, Lynne Amphlet and Suky varieties at the helm. In the last two weeks of February we employed three more line supervisors. They were sourced through fruitfuljobs.com and are our first eastern European workers in the operations department. So far Peter, Martin and Tomas have shown great aptitude for the job and are welcome additions to the team.

Packhouse administration has been slightly changed and Paul Creswell is now providing cover at the weekends, sharing the supervision with new recruit Theresa Clifton. Patrick Hughes continues to oversee the administration of the packhouse.

Despite the ever increasing labour costs that growers and packers shoulder, Well Pict European has managed to lower the actual unit cost of production over the first quarter of 2005, making this the third consecutive year we have been below the national average cost. These achievements are only possible with the continual hard work of everyone involved with the packhouse and the significant increases in volume of our sales. The winter volumes we have seen this year are going a long way to reducing the seasonality of our packing
operation.

There was a change in the Asda specification during the Middle East season this winter, which made it a challenging time in the packhouse. The packhouse staff all worked extremely diligently to adjust to the new tolerances and systems that were expected of us, particularly when we experienced a down turn in the quality from our suppliers when the weather conditions changed for the worst in Egypt and Israel.

This spring also welcomed the arrival of a Gemini Family Network (GFN) in the packhouse. This is a computer software package supplied by Herbert Industrial to link the four Gemini weigh/ price/labelling machines in the packhouse to a central PC. Along with being able to centrally control all the information on the labelling machines including PLU set ups and pack prices, we will also be able to comply with e-weight regulations. Another benefit of the network is its generation of information. We are in the early stages at present but are confident we will be able to produce many different reports demonstrating data on weights packed, average punnet weights, maximum and minimum weights and total weight in and out.  This investment is aimed at giving more detailed information and feedback to growers that  use our Honeybourne facility.

Opening hours at Honeybourne have also been increased recently. From 1st March we have been receiving goods from 0600-1800 hrs with the flexibility to tip outside of these hours by negotiation. This has allowed us to handle a higher throughput of fruit without having a large holding stock as well as speeding up communication with growers regarding any issues that arise with deliveries.

Patrick Nightingale is leading the warehousing team this season. Patrick continues to form an excellent link with Well Pict Fresh Logistics and his proficient management of the warehousing staff and flexibility enable us to load and unload Lorries with efficiencies  ever seen before.

We have also re-formed the health and safety team this winter. We are always striving to provide a safe working environment for all and as part of this we have started the long process of risk assessments in all areas of Well*Pict–European.

Spring 2005