Our plants, in Hamilton and Morrinsville, are well positioned both in terms of catchment area for livestock and access to shipping ports in Auckland and Tauranga. Our two plants process around 234,000 head of cattle and 112,000 calves annually.
Our productivity is one of the highest in Australasia and our plant utilization and efficiency is one of the highest in New Zealand. Greenlea’s size means that it has the agility to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace.
Greenlea recognises the importance of re-investing in our business and the future of the meat industry. Innovation investment allows for greater product and process capabilities – examples include the Marel® Streamline boning system and RFID carcass traceability and the Veron blast tunnel.
We have a strong focus on our added value products and recently commissioned a new added value room targeting high end customers.
Greenlea has a research and development programme that incorporates three streams of work:
- operations,
- livestock; and
- marketing/sales.
R&D in the operations space is primarily focused on technology and engineering innovations that allow the plants to operate more efficiently and sustainably.
Health and safety of staff is also a priority.
In the past three years, we have invested around $18 million in capital expenditure in our processing plants and cold storage.
Livestock R&D is focussed on procurement innovation as well as on-farm quality assurance (QA) and farmer extension. Our work in the QA and extension areas is related to our $525k investment in the Red Meat Profit Partnership PGP. Marketing/sales R&D is generally focused on market development and consumer research for both domestic and global markets.
