NEW AUCKLAND FACILITY BOASTS FASTEST WINE FILLER IN COUNTRY The state-of-the-art facility dubbed “an evolution of technology compared with our other plants” by managing director Tim Howell-Usticke, houses the fastest wine filler in New Zealand, which at full speed can bottle enough wine to fill two 20ft export containers every hour. “We have the latest technology in bottling and in satellite racking storage,” Howell Usticke says. “As a group we handle more than 120 million bottles every year and our warehouses hold more than 60 million bottles of wine at any given time. Our bottling equipment caters for both large runs and also those wineries wanting to bottle smaller parcels of wine.” Howell-Usticke says the facility is located in the “sweet spot” of the wine company’s supply chain. “Here we have easy access to rail, the port, the airport, industry suppliers and supermarket distribution centres. In addition, the country’s only glassworks is just down the road, and New Zealand’s largest wine market is right on our doorstep.” WineWorks and its national team of 340 staff provide services to more than half the wineries in the country, through operations 36 OCTOBER 2016 in Auckland, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. Howell-Usticke says Marlborough may be the engine room of the New Zealand wine industry, but “Auckland is where New Zealand’s wine industry was founded and where the country’s biggest wineries are headquartered. We need to be here.” WineWorks is recognised internationally for its processes, and its filling lines have been confirmed by independent audit as being in the top three of all bottling lines sampled throughout Australasia. These lines achieve very low levels of dissolved oxygen pickup, one of the key criteria for winemakers to judge bottling quality. In addition, WineWorks currently carries 14 international certifications, the result of quality work recognised through an arduous annual audit programme that secures global relationships with the likes of BRC, Tesco and Walmart to name a few. It was a somewhat different scenario 21 years ago, when Howell-Usticke first decided to develop a ‘behind-the-scenes back shed’ to support the wine producers of Hawke’s Bay. A qualified engineer by trade and from a farming background in Central Hawke’s Bay, he returned to his hometown of Hastings after intrepid journeys ultimately led him to working in food packaging facilities in Australia. “I wanted to take a primary product and by processing it, add value to that product,” he says. “I wanted that increased value to be captured by the region, to enhance regional prosperity. WineWorks was a way to help keep vitality, jobs and wealth in the region where it was produced.” Howell-Usticke discovered a young and vibrant grape-growing industry, and he knew that by providing the mechanical process of bottling, wine warehousing and distribution along with other complementary services, WineWorks would enable wineries to focus on their core business. The company now includes wine transportation, laboratory checks and worldwide distribution in its offerings. So what lies ahead for WineWorks? For Howell-Usticke and his team, further expansion is not a current consideration. Instead, he says, it’s time to consolidate. “The New Zealand wine industry is going from strength to strength. We have a unique product to sell to the world.” Eight months in the planning…12 months to construct over two hectares…one of the tallest buildings in suburban Auckland…these have all been used to describe WineWorks’ new multi-million-dollar Onehunga facility, which was officially opened earlier this month 21 years after the company was established. Tim Howell-Usticke
FT-Oct16
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